Maintaining network connectivity of aerial devices during unmanned flight

ABSTRACT

Example methods, apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacture (e.g., physical storage media) to facilitate maintaining network connectivity of aerial devices during unmanned flight are disclosed. An example method may include providing, to an access point of a radio access network (RAN) during flight of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) on a flight route, channel allocation instructions for connecting the UAV to the radio access network via communication channels. The method may further include detecting an interference event associated with a portion of the flight route of the UAV during the flight. The method may further include adjusting, during the flight, the channel allocation instructions in response to detecting the interference event. The method may further include providing the adjusted channel allocation instructions to an access point of the radio access network during the flight.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

This disclosure relates generally to aerial devices and, moreparticularly, to facilitating maintaining network connectivity of aerialdevices during unmanned flight.

BACKGROUND

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also referred to as drones or unmannedaerial systems (UASs), may be mobile platforms capable of acquiring(e.g., sensing) information, delivering goods, handling objects, and/orperforming other actions, in many operating scenarios/applications. UAVsmay be utilized to travel to remote locations that are inaccessible tomanned vehicles, locations that are dangerous to humans, and/or anyother locations more suited for unmanned vehicles than manned vehicles.Upon reaching such locations, drones can perform many actions, such asacquiring sensor data (e.g., audio, image, video, and/or other sensordata) at a target location, delivering goods (e.g., packages, medicalsupplies, food supplies, engineering materials, etc.) to the targetlocation, handling objects (e.g., retrieving objects, operatingequipment, repairing equipment, etc.) at the target location, and soforth. In the various operating scenarios/applications, the actionsperformed by the UAVs may require navigating the UAVs and maintainingnetwork connectivity, such as connectivity to a cellular network.

SUMMARY

Using various embodiments, automated and adaptive flight routes andchannel allocation instructions for connecting to a network duringflight on the flight routes can maintain network connectivity of userequipment (UEs) at flight altitude, such as UAVs and/or other aerialdevices in order to facilitate aerial navigation and aerial operation.In various aspects, the UEs can maintain connectivity to and communicatewith base stations (e.g., also referred to as access points or cells) ofa cellular network (e.g., a radio access network of the cellularnetwork) while at flight altitude. The various embodiments may be usedfor UAVs and/or aerial devices of various sizes, including small UAVs(sUAVs) and larger UAVs, shapes, weight, speed, battery life, and/orother characteristics/traits, with appropriate consideration applied tothese characteristics/traits when generating flight routes and channelallocation instructions. The UAVs and/or aerial devices may be with orwithout passengers.

Traditionally, cellular networks are optimized for devices connecting ata ground level, such as two meters or less off the ground, where typicaldevices (e.g., mobile phones) generally operate. In such cases, groundlevel objects (e.g., buildings and other manmade objects, trees andother natural obstacles, etc.) and geographic conditions (e.g.,landforms including hills, mountains, etc. that may affect signaltransmissions) may cause signal attenuation. Therefore, cellular basestations are generally optimized based on these factors for devicesaffected by such obstacles. However, UAVs at higher altitudes mayinstead encounter little to no ground level obstructions from groundlevel objects and may generate signal interference on the cellularnetwork as well as receive interference from multiple base stations.

In various embodiments, for a given UAV, flight routes and channelallocation instructions may be based on flight plans provided by anoperator of the UAV and geographic information associated withgeographic regions that encompass starting points and destination pointsprovided in the flight plans. The geographic information may includeobstacle information, weather information, traffic managementinformation (e.g., air traffic management information),emergency/critical broadcast information, and/or generally any otherstatic and dynamic information associated with the geographic regions.For instance, the air traffic management information may includeinterference impact to the cellular network due to the cellular network(e.g., typically designed for devices connecting at a ground level)accommodating (e.g., providing network connectivity to) UAVs. In someaspects, the flight route and channel allocation instructions may begenerated and managed by a mobile network provider of a cellularnetwork. Adjustments to the flight routes and/or channel allocationinstructions may be made in response to detected events and/or inresponse to requests from the UEs (e.g., adjustments to the flightplans). Detected events may be, or may include, detected changes in thegeographic information, such as changes in an expected interferenceimpact of accommodating UAVs and/or other aerial devices by a network(e.g., cellular network).

Flight routes and channel allocation instructions can be coordinated toallow air traffic to be better distributed throughout the airspace(e.g., to reduce traffic congestion and/or collisions) and/or to allowwireless traffic to be better distributed (e.g., to reduce overloadingof some access points, underutilization of other access points, andinterference impact above a threshold), thus facilitating more efficientuse of the airspace and the network.

In one or more embodiments, a method to facilitate network connectivityof a UAV includes providing, to at least one access point of a radioaccess network during flight of the unmanned aerial vehicle on a flightroute, channel allocation instructions for connecting the UAV to theradio access network via communication channels. The method furtherincludes detecting an interference event associated with a portion ofthe flight route of the UAV during the flight; adjusting, during theflight, the channel allocation instructions in response to detecting theinterference event; and providing the adjusted channel allocationinstructions to an access point of the radio access network during theflight.

In one or more embodiments, a system includes one or more processors.The system further includes a non-transitory machine readable mediumcomprising instructions stored thereon, which when executed by the oneor more processors, cause the one or more processors to performoperations including receiving flight plan information comprising afirst point (e.g., a starting point) and a second point (e.g., adestination point). The operations further include generating, based atleast on the flight plan information and interference informationassociated with a geographic region encompassing the first point and thesecond point, a flight route for an unmanned aerial vehicle and channelallocation instructions for connecting the unmanned aerial vehicle to aradio access network via communication channels; providing the flightroute to the unmanned aerial vehicle; and providing, to at least oneaccess point of the radio access network during flight of the unmannedaerial vehicle on the flight route, the channel allocation instructions.The operations further include adjusting, during the flight, the channelallocation instructions in response to an event associated with aportion of the flight route; and providing the adjusted channelallocation instructions to at least one access point of the radio accessnetwork during the flight.

In one or more embodiments, a tangible or non-transitory machinereadable storage medium including machine readable instructions which,when executed, cause one or more processors of a device to performoperations including providing, to at least one access point of a radioaccess network, channel allocation instructions for connecting unmannedaerial vehicles to the radio access network via communication channelsduring flight of the unmanned aerial vehicles on a flight route, wherethe flight route includes a subset of a plurality of predefined aircorridors. The operations further include detecting an interferenceevent associated at least one of the subset of the plurality ofpredefined air corridors; determining whether an alternative flightroute is available based at least on interference information associatedwith the plurality of predefined corridors; adjusting the channelallocation instructions in response to detecting the interference eventwhen no alternative flight routes are determined to be available; andproviding the adjusted channel allocation instructions to at least oneaccess point of the radio access network.

The scope of the disclosure is defined by the claims, which areincorporated into this section by reference. A more completeunderstanding of embodiments of the disclosure will be afforded to thoseskilled in the art, as well as a realization of additional advantagesthereof, by a consideration of the following detailed description of oneor more embodiments. Reference will be made to the appended sheets ofdrawings that will first be described briefly.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example network environment in which a system formaintaining network connectivity of aerial devices during unmannedflight may be implemented in accordance with one or more embodiments ofthe present disclosure.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of air corridors.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a partitioning of an air corridor inaccordance with one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates a flow diagram of an example process for facilitatingmaintaining network connectivity of aerial devices during unmannedflight in accordance with one or more embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of another example process forfacilitating maintaining network connectivity of aerial devices duringunmanned flight in accordance with one or more embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram of an example of a UAV processingunit in accordance with one or more embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 7 illustrates a block diagram of an example of a communicationchannel allocation unit in accordance with one or more embodiments ofthe present disclosure.

FIG. 8 illustrates a block diagram of an example of a flight managementunit in accordance with one or more embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 9 illustrates a block diagram of an example of an electronic systemwith which one or more embodiments of the present disclosure may beimplemented.

Embodiments of the present disclosure and their advantages are bestunderstood by referring to the detailed description that follows. Itshould be appreciated that like reference numerals are used to identifylike elements illustrated in one or more of the figures, where showingstherein are for purposes of illustrating embodiments of the presentdisclosure and not for purposes of limiting the same.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The detailed description set forth below is intended as a description ofvarious configurations of the subject technology and is not intended torepresent the only configurations in which the subject technology can bepracticed. The appended drawings are incorporated herein and constitutea part of the detailed description. The detailed description includesspecific details for the purpose of providing a thorough understandingof the subject technology. However, it will be clear and apparent tothose skilled in the art that the subject technology is not limited tothe specific details set forth herein and may be practiced using one ormore embodiments. In one or more instances, structures and componentsare shown in block diagram faun in order to avoid obscuring the conceptsof the subject technology. One or more embodiments of the subjectdisclosure are illustrated by and/or described in connection with one ormore figures and are set forth in the claims.

Various techniques are provided for facilitating maintaining networkconnectivity of UEs at flight altitude during unmanned flight, such asUAVs and/or other aerial devices. The UEs at flight altitude may fly onflight routes provided to the UEs and may be connected to a network(e.g., cellular network) via communication channels defined based atleast on channel allocation instructions associated with the UEs. In anembodiment, for a given UE intended to be operated at flight altitude,the flight routes, channel allocation instructions, and other relatedinformation (e.g., start time, end time, speed of the flight) may bedetermined and generated based on flight plan information provided by anoperator of the UE and geographic information. The geographicinformation may include obstacle information, weather information,traffic management information (e.g., air traffic managementinformation), emergency/critical broadcast information, and/or generallyany other static and dynamic information associated with the geographicregions.

Flight route, flight plan information, geographic information, and/orother information may be provided in three-dimensional space. Forexample, the flight route may be defined using a set of points, witheach point associated with a longitude coordinate (or range of longitudecoordinates), a latitude coordinate (or range of latitude coordinates),and an altitude coordinate (or range of altitude coordinates). Thealtitude coordinate may be a distance (e.g., height) from a referencesea level. Similarly, a position of a device (e.g., UE, access point)may be provided in three-dimensional space. In some cases, rather thanthe longitude, latitude, and/or altitude coordinates, other coordinatesystems by which to identify positions of points in a three-dimensionalspace may be utilized. In this regard, in an aspect, a position mayrefer to a coordinate value or range of coordinate values inthree-dimensional space. In some cases, the flight route may identifypotential intermediary stops by the UEs, such as stops at UAV powerdocking stations to charge the UEs. The UEs may be provided withautonomy as to which (if any) of the potential intermediary stops touse.

In various embodiments, the traffic management information may includean interference impact to the network due to the network accommodating(e.g., providing network connectivity to) UAVs and/or other aerialdevices. In this regard, for example, cellular networks are typicallydesigned for devices connecting at a ground level. The interferenceimpact may include uplink noise (e.g., also referred to as uplinkinterference noise) caused by UAVs flying in the airspace. Each accesspoint of the network may be exposed to uplink interference noise due toany number of factors, including an orientation of its antenna(s),surrounding environment (e.g., presence or lack of presence ofobstacles, weather conditions, etc.), and distance between the accesspoint and UEs. The interference impact may be represented by (e.g.,quantified by) an interference index (e.g., also referred to as aninterference coefficient). The interference index may be associated with(e.g., assigned to) different portions of the airspace. The interferenceindex of a portion of the airspace is indicative of an expectedinterference impact of a UE flying within the portion of the airspace tothe network. In some cases, a higher interference index is associatedwith higher interference impact.

Adjustments to the flight routes and/or channel allocation instructionsmay be made in response to detected events and/or in response torequests from the UEs (e.g., adjustments to the flight plans). Detectedevents may be, or may include, detected changes in the geographicinformation, such as changes in an expected interference impact ofaccommodating UAVs and/or other aerial devices by the network (e.g.,cellular network). An interference event may be detected when aninterference impact is above a threshold. In some cases, theinterference impact may be represented in terms of noise level (e.g., indB) per physical resource block (PRB). By way of non-limiting example,in response to adjustments to the channel allocation instructions, a UAVmay be migrated to a communication channel (e.g., also referred to as aradio channel) of a different frequency band, lower bit rate (e.g.,video compression for video streaming applications), differenttype/category associated with a communication technology (e.g., 4G),and/or different communication technology (e.g., Universal MobileTelecommunications Service (UMTS)). For example, a UAV may be migratedfrom communication over the network using a communication channel basedon a 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) to communication over the networkusing a communication channel based on 4G LTE Category-M1 (e.g., alsoreferred to as LTE CAT-M or LTE-M).

The flight route and channel allocation instructions are generated andadjusted in compliance with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)requirements and/or other requirements, such as temporary flightrestrictions (e.g., temporary event such as wildfire or security-relatedevent, stadiums/sporting events), restricted airspace, airport-relatedrestrictions, local flight ordinances, and/or other restrictions. Otherflight recommendations and/or requirements may be taken intoconsideration, such as any recommended or required minimum/maximumflight altitude and/or minimum/maximum flight speed.

In some embodiments, the airspace may be partitioned (e.g., divided,defined) into air corridors (e.g., also referred to as flight corridors,drone corridors, or drone air corridors) through which UAVs are allowedto fly. For example, the air corridors may be defined and adjusted by anauthority such as the FAA. In such embodiments, the flight routes may begenerated by connecting one or more air corridors. Different aircorridors may be associated with different geographic information (e.g.,obstacle information, weather information, traffic managementinformation interference impact, etc.). An interference index or aninterference index pattern (e.g., formed of multiple interferenceindices) can be assigned to each air corridor.

Thus, in various embodiments, the techniques facilitate sharing ofairspace by UEs through the use of flight routes provided to the UEs andchannel allocation instructions for connecting the UEs to a network(e.g., cellular network). The flight routes can be coordinated to reducethe possibility of collisions (e.g., between different UEs or between aUE and an obstacle), maintain wireless connection of the UEs to anetwork during flight of the UEs, and/or meet quality of service (QoS)parameters for various applications (e.g., ground-based and/oraerial-based missions). For example, QoS parameters for deliveringpackages may include reliability in meeting a deadline (e.g., time atwhich to reach the destination point) and/or maintaining the packages ingood condition. In this regard, the flight routes and channel allocationinstructions can be coordinated to allow air traffic to be betterdistributed throughout the airspace (e.g., to reduce traffic congestionand/or collisions) and/or to allow wireless traffic to be betterdistributed (e.g., to reduce overloading of some access points,underutilization of other access points, and interference impact due toUEs at flight altitude), thus facilitating more efficient use of theairspace and the network. By defining flight routes and channelallocation instructions, access points for the flight routes, startand/or end times of the flight routes, and/or other parametersassociated with facilitating flight from a starting point to adestination point, a large density of UEs may simultaneously share(e.g., fly in) the airspace.

The implementation of the flight routes may be supplemented by onboardsensors of the UEs and/or broadcast messages provided by access pointsof the network. For instance, the onboard sensors of the UEs may beoperated to maintain a minimum distance separation between the UEs andother UEs, and/or between the UEs and obstacles, e.g., such as minimumdistance separation requirements or recommendations from FAA.

The network may include a wide area network (WAN), such as acellular-based WAN. In some aspects, base stations of a cellular networkare generally those base stations utilized with UEs at ground level ornear ground level, such as vehicles (e.g., cars) and mobile phonesoperated at or near ground level. For example, position and orientation(e.g., tilt) of antennas of the base stations may be configured toprovide higher signal strength for devices below these antennas. In thisregard, the base stations may be designed with a main antenna patternthat primarily encompasses a ground region. Furthermore, at loweraltitudes, obstructions such as buildings and trees may help preventsignals from multiple base stations from reaching the vehicles anddevices at or near ground level with signal strengths that causesignificant interference.

When radio modules, such as 3G, 4G, 4G LTE, 5G, other 3^(rd) GenerationPartnership Project (3GPP)-based radio modules, and/or other radiomodules, are placed at flight altitude, such as 300 feet or 400 feet,the line of sight propagation of signals from multiple base stations maybe received by the radio modules and cause interference. The differentantenna patterns (e.g., different vertical antenna patterns) of the basestations at different radio frequencies (e.g., in different frequencybands) and/or at different altitudes may cause degradation ofcommunicated signals, including signals associated with application dataand command/control functions. In addition, higher altitudes generallyhave fewer obstructions than at ground level, and thus more signals mayreach the devices/vehicles at higher altitudes and cause interferencerelative to devices/vehicles at ground level. The aerialdevices/vehicles (e.g., UAVs) may include antennas to receive radiosignals from one or more base stations, such as a closest base stationand/or a base station associated with higher signal strength. However,at altitudes above ground level, such as 20 feet or more above groundlevel, the aforementioned issues become apparent to radio signalsreceived by the aerial devices/vehicles.

In some aspects, although the UEs are not communicating with basestations dedicated to aerial communication, the generation, management,and implementation of the flight routes may facilitate flight of the UEsand maintaining of cellular connectivity during flight of the UEswithout disrupting service to UEs at ground level. In an aspect, flightof the UEs and maintaining of cellular connectivity may be facilitatedwith minimal or no changes to structural features, such as the housing,antennas, and/or other components, such that the use of the cellularnetwork (e.g., the base stations) with the UEs at ground level are notaffected by the UEs at flight altitude.

Although the description of the present disclosure is made with respectto cellular networks and UAVs, the techniques described herein may beapplied to any wireless networks and any UEs navigating at flightaltitudes and capable of establishing connectivity in such wirelessnetworks. In some aspects, alternatively and/or in addition, the UAVsmay wirelessly communicate with other devices using other wirelesstechnology, such as Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers(IEEE) 802.11 standard, Bluetooth® standard, ZigBee® standard, and/orother wireless standards; infrared-based communications; optical-basedcommunications; and/or other appropriate communication standards and/orprotocols.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example network environment 100 in which a systemfor maintaining network connectivity of aerial devices during unmannedflight may be implemented in accordance with one or more embodiments ofthe present disclosure. Not all of the depicted components may berequired, however, and one or more embodiments may include additionalcomponents shown in the figure. Variations in the arrangement and typeof the components may be made without departing from the spirit or scopeof the claims as set forth herein. Additional components, differentcomponents, and/or fewer components may be provided. It is noted thatsizes of various components and distances between these components arenot drawn to scale in FIG. 1.

The network environment 100 includes a UAV 105, a user device 115, aradio access network (RAN) 120, an aerial traffic management system 130,and a core network 135. Base stations 120A-C of the RAN 120 are shown inFIG. 1, although the RAN 120 may include additional base stations. Inother cases, a RAN may include fewer or more base stations. The UAV 105,user device 115, RAN 120 (e.g., base stations 120A-C), aerial trafficmanagement system 130, and core network 135 may be in communicationdirectly or indirectly. As used herein, the phrases “in communication,”“communicatively connected,” and variances thereof, encompass directcommunication and/or indirect communication through one or moreintermediary components and does not require direct physical (e.g.,wired and/or wireless) communication and/or constant communication, butrather additionally includes selective communication at periodic oraperiodic intervals, as well as one-time events. In addition,communication with the RAN 120 may include communication with one ormore of the base stations 120A-C and/or other components (e.g., basestations) of the RAN 120 not shown in FIG. 1. Similarly, communicationwith the core network 135 may include communication with one or morecomponents of the core network 135, such as communication with amobility management entity (MME) of the core network 135.

In an embodiment, the network environment 100 is implemented to formpart of a cellular network, such as a 3G, 4G, 5G, and/or other3GPP-based cellular network, and/or a cellular network based on othercellular standards. In this regard, as an example, the description ofFIG. 1 is made herein with respect to the network environment 100providing a cellular network. The cellular network may be provided by amobile network operator. In FIG. 1, the cellular network includes theRAN 120, aerial traffic management system 130, and/or core network 135.In some cases, the aerial traffic management system 130 may be providedby another party. In some examples, the network environment 100 may beadditionally or alternatively implemented to form part of a satellitecommunication network, microwave radio network, and/or other wirelessnetworks.

The UAV 105 may include, may be a component of, and/or may be referredto as, a UE. The UAV 105 may include a flight control unit,communication unit, and payload unit. The flight control unit may beconfigured to facilitate aerial navigation of the UAV 105, e.g., takeoff, landing, and flight of the UAV 105. The flight control unit mayinclude any appropriate avionics, control actuators, and/or otherequipment, along with associated logic, circuitry, interfaces, memory,and/or code. Additionally, the flight control unit may include acontroller that receives flight route information from one or moresources, including a memory and/or an external controller (e.g., setinstructions from a service provider and/or in-flightnavigation/instructions from an operator) that operates the UAV 105.

The communication unit may include one or more radio transceivers (e.g.,antennas) along with associated logic, circuitry, interfaces, memory,and/or code that enable communications, e.g., with the user device 115,RAN 120 (e.g., one or more of the base stations 120A-C), aerial trafficmanagement system 130, and/or core network 135 via wireless interfacesand using the radio transceivers. In FIG. 1, the radio transceivers ofthe UAV 105 include an antenna 110, which may be omnidirectional ordirectional. The antenna 110 may be utilized to radiate and/or receivepower uniformly in all directions (e.g., omnidirectional antenna), orone or more desired directions (e.g., directional antenna) to allowbetter performance (e.g., higher signal strength) in the desireddirection, such as through higher gain and directivity and reducedinterference due to signals from sources deviating from the desireddirection. In this regard, signal strength of command/control linksand/or application data channels may be improved, and/or interference ofsignals from different base stations may be reduced through the use of adirectional antenna. The antenna 110 may be contained within a housingof the UAV 105, or disposed (e.g., mounted) outside a housing of the UAV105 as an attachable and/or removable antenna. In some cases, theantenna 110 may be movable along and/or rotatable about one, two, orthree axes. In other cases, the antenna 110 may be fixed (e.g., notmovable and not rotatable).

The UAV 105 may measure signal strength, signal diagnostics, and/orinterferences of signals from the base stations via signals received bythe antenna 110 and/or other antenna(s) (e.g., omnidirectional and/ordirectional antenna) of the UAV 105. The signal strength may be, or maybe based on, measures such as received signal strength indicator (RSSI),reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal receivedquality (RSRQ), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR),signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR), and/or other measures.Such measures of signal strength may be computed by the UAV 105 onsignals received from a serving base station of the UAV 105 andsurrounding base stations of the serving base station, which may includebase stations referenced as neighbor base stations of the serving basestation. In an aspect, signal strength may be referred to as signalquality, signal level, or signal power. A higher signal strength isgenerally associated with better reception. In addition, the antenna 110and/or other antenna(s) may be used to exchange messages with the RAN120 (e.g., one or more of the base stations 120A-C) to analyze messagereception, clarity, and/or other measurements, as well as detect issueswith messaging due to interference.

In an embodiment, the communication unit may send and/or receiveinformation over a cellular technology network (e.g., 3G, 4G, 5G, and/orother 3GPP-based cellular network), such as to and/or from the userdevice 115, one or more of the base stations 120A-C, and/or the aerialtraffic management system 130. In some aspects, the UAV 105 maywirelessly communicate (e.g., via the antenna 110 and/or other antennas)with other devices using other wireless technology, such as IEEE 802.11standard, Bluetooth® standard, ZigBee® standard, and/or other wirelessstandards; infrared-based communications; optical-based communications;and/or other appropriate communication standards and/or protocols. Insome cases, the UAV 105 may communicate via the antenna 110 using LTECategory-M1 and/or other Internet of Things (IoT)-based communicationprotocols/technologies. In some cases, the UAV 105 may be configured tocommunicate with another device using a proprietary wirelesscommunication protocol and interface.

In addition, the communication unit of the UAV 105 may include suitablelogic, circuitry, interfaces, memory, and/or code that enable wiredcommunications, e.g., with the user device 115, RAN 120, aerial trafficmanagement system 130, and/or core network 135. In this regard, the UAV105 may be configured to interface with a wired network, such as via anEthernet interface, power-line modem, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)modem, Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) modem, cable modem,and/or other appropriate components for wired communication. A wiredlink may be implemented with a power-line cable, coaxial cable,fiber-optic cable, or other cable or wires that support correspondingwired network technologies. For example, the UAV 105 may utilize wiredconnections when at or near ground level, such as a wired connectionbetween the UAV 105 and user device 115 for facilitating testing and/orcalibration/setup of the UAV 105.

The payload unit may be configured to implement features supported bythe UAV 105 and facilitate implementation of such features. The payloadunit may include any equipment and associated logic, circuitry,interfaces, memory, and/or code. The payload unit may include a globalpositioning system (GPS) that provides a current position of the UAV 105(e.g., using three coordinates). The position information from the GPS,together with position information of devices in communication with theUAV 105, may allow the UAV 105 to direct a directional antenna to, or toa vicinity of, one or more of these devices. By facilitatingestablishing and maintaining of connections with higher signal strength,the UAV 105 may facilitate implementation of various features supportedby the UAV 105.

Depending on an application(s) of the UAV 105, the payload unit mayinclude one or more onboard sensors, which may be contained within ahousing of the UAV 105 or mounted outside the housing of the UAV 105.Such applications of the UAV 105 may be, may include, or may beperformed as a part of missions to be performed by the UAV 105. By wayof non-limiting example, sensors may include environmental sensors, suchas temperature sensors, rain sensors, pressure sensors, humiditysensors, fog sensors, gas sensors, etc., or combination thereof;object/obstacle detection sensors, such as radar sensors, proximitysensors, motion detectors, etc., or combination thereof; imaging sensors(e.g., cameras, video cameras); acoustic sensors, and/or other types ofsensors, or combination thereof. Some sensors may be utilized to preventcollisions, and may include other processing features for a collisionavoidance system. Alternatively or in addition, the payload unit mayinclude tools, actuators, robotic manipulators, etc., capable ofperforming an action, such as touching, grasping, delivering, and/ormeasuring objects. For delivery applications, the payload unit mayinclude the object to be delivered, e.g., the object may be securedwithin a housing of the UAV 105. The payload unit may also containrechargeable power sources, such as a rechargeable solar battery andassociated solar charging panel or photovoltaic charging source.

The user device 115 may be, and/or may include, a mobile phone, apersonal digital assistant (PDA), a tablet device, a computer, orgenerally any device that is operable to communicate wirelessly (e.g.,via cellular standards using antennas) with the UAV 105, RAN 120, aerialtraffic management system 130, and/or core network 135. For example, theuser device 115 may communicate wirelessly over the cellular network byusing the base station 120A as its serving base station. In an aspect,the user device 115 may be a remote control used by an operator (e.g., ahuman) to provide commands to the UAV 105 when the UAV 105 is withinline of sight of the user device 115. For example, the operator mayissue commands via the user device 115 to instruct the UAV 105 to fly incertain directions and/or at certain speeds and/or to perform activitiessuch as picking up or delivering an object. In an aspect, the line ofsight of the user device 115 may refer to a coverage area or coveragevolume within which signals transmitted by the user device 115 to theUAV 105 can be received by the UAV 105 with sufficient signal strength.In some cases, the sufficient signal strength may be a preset thresholdlevel (e.g., SNR level), which may be set during a setup/calibrationstage for associating the UAV 105 with the user device 115.

In an embodiment, the UAV 105 and the user device 115 may wirelesslycommunicate with each other using wireless standards; cellularstandards, and/or other cellular standards; infrared-basedcommunication; optical-based communications; and/or other appropriatecommunication standards and/or protocols. In some cases, the UAV 105 maycommunicate with the user device 115 using LTE Category-M1, otherIoT-based communication protocols/technologies, and/or proprietarywireless communication protocol and interface. In some cases, the UAV105 and the user device 115 may be configured to communicate over awired link (e.g., through a network router, switch, hub, or othernetwork device) for purposes of wired communication, e.g., such asduring testing, setup, and/or calibration stages between the UAV 105 andthe user device 115. The UAV 105 may be at or near ground level toreceive a wired connection. The UAV 105 and the user device 115 may beconfigured to interface with a wired network, such as via an Ethernetinterface, power-line modem, DSL modem, PSTN modem, cable modem,proprietary wired communication protocols, and/or other appropriatecomponents for wired communication.

Although a single user device (e.g., the user device 115) is shown inFIG. 1, multiple user devices (e.g., multiple devices owned by orotherwise accessible to the same operator) may be utilized tocommunicate with the UAV 105. For example, the same operator maycommunicate with the UAV 105 using the user device 115 (e.g., a tabletdevice) and/or a mobile phone.

One or more of the base stations 120A-C of the RAN 120 may include, maybe a component of, and/or may be referred to as, a cell, a Node B (NB),an Evolved Node B (eNodeB or eNB), or a Home eNB (HeNB). One or more ofthe base stations 120A-C include suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces,memory, and/or code that enable communications, e.g., with the userdevice 115, one of the other base stations 120A-C, the aerial trafficmanagement system 130, and/or core network 135 via wireless interfacesand utilizing one or more radio transceivers (e.g., antennas). In anaspect, the base stations 120A-C may transmit (e.g., broadcast) messagesthat, if received and processed by the UAV 105, provide information tofacilitate navigation of the UAV 105 in the airspace. In some cases, themessages transmitted by the base stations 120A-C may be based oninformation that the base stations 120A-C receive from the core network135 and/or aerial traffic management system 130. In some cases, one ormore of the base stations 120A-C may be mobile (e.g., mobile basestations at ground level, mobile base stations at flight altitudes,mobile naval-based base stations, etc.).

The base stations 120A-C may be macrocell base stations, microcell basestations, picocell base stations, femtocell base stations, and/or othercell sizes. For example, the macrocell base station may provide acoverage area over a radial range up to the tens or hundreds ofkilometers, the picocell base station may provide coverage over a radialrange in the hundreds of meters, and the femtocell base station mayprovide coverage over a radial range in the tens of meters. In FIG. 1,the base stations 120A, 120B, and 120C have nominal coverage area 125A,125B, and 125C, respectively, at ground level or near ground level. Thecoverage area of a base station may be different in differentenvironments, at different altitudes, at different times, and atdifferent frequency bands. When altitudes are taken into consideration,the coverage area provided by the base stations 120A-C may moreappropriately be referred to as a coverage volume, with differentcoverage areas at different altitudes. In an aspect, a coverage area ofa base station may be larger at flight altitudes (e.g., 400 feet) thanat lower altitudes such as ground level, due to fewer obstructions atflight altitudes for example. As used herein, the coverage area andcoverage volume may be referred to more generally as a coverage region,where the region may be two-dimensional (e.g., coverage area) orthree-dimensional (e.g., coverage volume).

The core network 135 may include components (e.g., authentication,authorization, and account (AAA) server, MME, etc.) for managingconnections of ground-based UEs (e.g., the user device 115) and/oraerial-based UEs (e.g., the UAV 105) to the RAN 120, aerial trafficmanagement system 130, core network 135, and/or other cellular networksor components thereof (e.g., base stations of other RANs), and processinformation communicated using these connections. For example, the corenetwork 135 may include and/or may be in communication with, a mobiletelephone switching office (MTSO). The core network 135 may includecomponents, such as an MME and/or other components, for authenticatingUEs to the cellular network (e.g., authenticating UEs to the RAN 120 andcore network 135) and for operating in conjunction with the RAN 120 todetermine radio resource management strategy to facilitate connectivityof UEs to the cellular network.

The core network 135 includes suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces,memory, and/or code that enable communications, e.g., with the RAN 120(e.g., one or more of the base stations 120A-C), aerial trafficmanagement system 130, and/or one or more UEs (e.g., the UAV 105, theuser device 115), via wireless interfaces and utilize one or more radiotransceivers. In some cases, the core network 135 or components thereofmay enable communications with the RAN 120 and aerial traffic managementsystem 130 via wired interfaces.

The aerial traffic management system 130 may facilitate flight of UAVsand/or other aerial devices at flight altitude and maintainingconnectivity of such vehicles/devices to the cellular network (e.g., theRAN 120 and core network 135). The aerial traffic management system 130includes suitable logic, circuitry, interfaces, memory, and/or code thatenable communications, e.g., with the RAN 120 (e.g., one or more of thebase stations 120A-C), core network 135 (e.g., MIME of the core network135), and/or one or more UEs (e.g., the UAV 105, the user device 115),via wireless and/or wired interfaces and utilize one or more radiotransceivers.

In some aspects, the aerial traffic management system 130 (orcomponent(s) thereof) may be a part of the core network 135 that isdedicated to handling UAVs and/or other aerial devices (e.g.,authentication, profile information access and/or storage, etc.).Alternatively and/or in addition, the aerial traffic management system130 (or component(s) thereof) may be separate from the core network 135.For instance, the aerial traffic management system 130 may be providedby another party. In this regard, even when provided by differentparties, the aerial traffic management system 130 may share informationwith the core network 135, and vice versa, to facilitate management ofUEs associated with (e.g., connected to, provided connectivity by) thecellular network. For explanatory purposes, operations described asbeing performed by the aerial traffic management system 130 may beperformed at least partially, performed alternatively, and/or performedin addition at the core network 135, and/or vice versa.

In an aspect, the core network 135 and/or aerial traffic managementsystem 130 may be, may include, or may be a part of, a server or serverfarm that can generate and distribute information to the user device 115and/or the RAN 120. In some cases, different components (e.g., devices)of the core network 135 and/or aerial traffic management system 130 maybe distributed across different geographic locations and/or may manageUEs (e.g., ground-based, aerial-based) and base stations in differentgeographic locations.

The base stations 120A-C of the RAN 120 may be in communication with thecore network 135 and/or the aerial traffic management system 130 througha backhaul network. A UE (e.g., the UAV 105, the user device 115) maycommunicate with the core network 135 and/or the aerial trafficmanagement system 130 via a serving base station selected by the UE, andthe core network 135 and/or the aerial traffic management system 130 maycommunicate with the UE via the UE's serving base station. The corenetwork 135 and/or aerial traffic management system 130 may be in directcommunication with one or more of the base stations 120A-C or incommunication with one or more of the base stations 120A-C through oneor more intermediary base stations.

In some aspects, the base stations 120A-C may individually store orotherwise have access to a neighbor list that includes neighboringrelationships of a base station with other base stations. The neighborlist may be an automatic neighbor relation (ANR) table. In some cases,the neighbor relationships may be based on measurement reports from UEs(e.g., the UAV 105). The UEs may transmit (e.g., periodically,aperiodically) the measurement reports to their respective serving basestations. The serving base stations may transmit (e.g., periodically,aperiodically) the measurement reports and/or information related to(e.g., derived from) the measurement reports to the aerial trafficmanagement system 130 and/or core network 135.

The measurement reports may include signal strengths (e.g., RSSI, RSRP,etc.) of signals from the base stations 120A-C that are received andmeasured by the UEs and/or information derived based on the signalstrengths. For example, the UAV 105 may measure the signal strengths ofsignals received by the UAV 105 from the serving base station, neighborbase stations of the serving base station, and/or other base stations,and the UAV 105 may include the signal strengths in the measurementreports. In some cases, the measurement reports of a UE may includeinformation pertaining to signal strength of downlink PRBs, and/or othersignal measurements, of the UE's serving base station and neighbor basestations of the serving base station.

In some cases, the core network 135 and/or aerial traffic managementsystem 130 may generate, store, maintain, and/or update the neighborlists. For example, the neighbor list for the base station 120A may begenerated by the core network 135 based on measurement reports providedby UEs to the base station 120A and relayed by the base station 120A tothe core network 135. Alternatively or in addition, the core network 135may generate the neighbor list based on signal strength statistics, suchas RSRP or RSSI variances, average SNR, average SINR, and/or generallyany other signal strength statistics computed based on one or moresignals received and measured by the UEs. The statistics may be computedby the UEs, the base stations 120A-C, aerial traffic management system130, and/or the core network 135.

If the base station 120A receives comparative signal strengths (e.g., onmeasurement reports) from the UAV 105 for the base stations 120A and120B, the base station 120A, aerial traffic management system 130,and/or core network 135 may determine that the base stations 120A and120B can be referenced as neighboring base stations on the neighborlist. In an aspect, multiple neighbor lists may be generated for eachbase station. For example, one neighbor list for the base station 120Amay be generated based on measurement reports from UEs at ground level(or near ground level), whereas a different neighbor list may begenerated based on measurement reports from UEs at flight altitudes(e.g., UAVs).

In some cases, a neighbor list may include position information (e.g.,longitude, latitude, altitude) of each base station on the neighbor listand/or otherwise provide information indicative of the positioninformation of each base station. The position information may allow theUAV 105 to point a directional antenna (e.g., if any) at its servingbase station to allow improved reception and transmission of signals,and/or scan for possible serving base stations using a directionalantenna. In some cases, the neighbor list may include other information(e.g., obstacle information, weather information, etc.) for each basestation on the neighbor list.

In an embodiment, the aerial traffic management system 130 receives,stores, analyzes, and processes data indicative of impact of UAVs and/orother aerial devices on the cellular network (e.g., the RAN 120, aerialtraffic management system 130, and/or core network 135) in differentportions of the airspace. The impact may be referred to as aninterference impact and is indicative of the effect of accommodating(e.g., expending resources on) the UAVs and/or other aerial devices atflight altitude by providing the UAVs and/or other aerial devicesconnectivity to the cellular network, which is generally designed foruse by devices at ground level. Such interference data may be includedin and/or derived from the measurement reports received from the UAVsand/or other aerial devices.

For flight of the UAV 105 within a portion of the airspace (e.g., aircorridor or portion thereof), the interference impact associated withthe UAV 105 may be based on measurement reports provided by the UAV 105to its serving base station during flight within the portion of theairspace. The interference impact may be based on noise (e.g., uplinknoise) experienced by base stations of the RAN 120 when a UE at flightaltitude is flying in the airspace. By way of non-limiting example, thenoise caused by the UAV 105 may be based on transmission power used bythe UAV 105 for data transmissions to its current serving base station,received signal power of signals (e.g., RSRP and/or RSRQ values)received by the UAV 105 from the current serving base station, andreceived signal power of signals received by the UAV 105 fromsurrounding base stations associated with the current serving basestation. In an aspect, the surrounding base stations may be, or mayinclude, base stations designated as neighboring base stations of thecurrent serving base station (e.g., on an ANR table) of the currentserving base station). In some cases, the interference impact to thecellular network associated with (e.g., attributed to) a UE when the UEis connected to the cellular network via a serving base station may beutilized to determine neighbor base stations of the serving basestation.

As an example, for the UAV 105, the aerial traffic management system 130may determine interference impact based on information pertaining touplink and downlink PRB signal quality, uplink and downlink PRButilization, and/or other information of a serving base station of theUAV 105, the serving base station's neighbor base stations, and/or otherbase stations. The information may be measured by the UAV 105 andprovided by the UAV 105 in the measurement reports. The UAV 105 may alsoidentify (e.g., in the measurement reports) the location (e.g.,longitude, latitude, altitude) and time at which the UAV 105 performedthe measurements. Such information may be utilized with information inmeasurement reports from other UEs to determine the interference impactto the cellular network (e.g., to PRBs associated with the RAN 120) thatcan be attributed to (e.g., correlated to) the cellular networkaccommodating the UAV 105. The aerial traffic management system 130 maygenerate interference indices based on the information provided by theUAV 105 and other aerial devices in their respective measurementreports.

In an embodiment, the aerial traffic management system 130 may defineportions of the airspace and determine an interference impact associatedwith accommodation of UEs by the cellular network in each portion of theairspace. In this case, for each portion of the airspace, theinterference impact may be based on noise (e.g., uplink noise)experienced by surrounding base stations (e.g., neighbor base stations)of a serving base station of the RAN 120 when the UEs are connected tothe serving base station while flying in the portion of the airspace.The interference impact may be represented in terms of noise level perPRB. In some aspects, in a specific portion of the airspace, the aerialtraffic management system 130 may determine correlations between levelsof uplink noise on a non-serving base station and associated cause(e.g., UAVs operating within the specific portion of the airspace) basedon non-serving base station PRB noise level analysis and uplink PRButilization of UEs flying in the specific portion of the airspace.Different portions of the airspace may experience different interferenceimpact associated with accommodation of UEs operating in the portions ofthe airspace.

Thus, using various embodiments, the aerial traffic management system130 may coordinate and monitor traffic associated with UEs flying in theairspace as well as uplink and downlink network traffic associated withservicing such UEs. In this regard, the aerial traffic management system130 may facilitate accommodation of UEs at flight altitude in thecellular network (e.g., typically optimized for UEs connecting at groundlevel) while monitoring and controlling impact of such accommodation onUEs that are connecting to the cellular network at or near ground level.In some cases, connectivity to the cellular network and/or flight routegeneration/management may be provided to subscribed UEs only. In othercases, cellular connectivity and/or flight route generation may beprovided to subscribed UEs as well as unsubscribed UEs (e.g., with anadditional fee for unsubscribed UEs).

In various embodiments, the aerial traffic management system 130 maygenerate and coordinate flight routes of UAVs and/or other aerialdevices to allow air traffic to be distributed at flight altitude (e.g.,to reduce traffic congestion and/or collisions) and/or cellular trafficto be distributed (e.g., to reduce overloading of some base stations andunderutilization of other base stations), thus facilitating moreefficient use of the airspace and the cellular network. In some cases,the distribution of the cellular traffic may help monitor and controlinterference impact on the cellular network associated with the UAVsand/or other aerial devices in the airspace.

In addition, the aerial traffic management system 130 may generatecommunication channel allocation instructions (e.g., also referred to asradio channel allocation instructions, physical channel allocationinstructions, or communication channel allocation instructions) andprovide these instructions to the RAN 120. The instructions may also bereferred to as options or guidelines. The channel allocationinstructions may indicate one or more frequency bands, bit rate range(e.g., minimum and/or maximum allowed bit rate), a communicationprotocol, and/or type/category of LTE technology (e.g., LTE Category M)to be used by the RAN 120 to define a communication channel (e.g.,physical communication channel) for the UAV 105 for connecting the UAV105 to the cellular network.

The channel allocation instructions are used by the base stations 120A-Cand/or any base stations of the RAN 120 to assign a communicationchannel with the UAV 105 when the UAV 105 selects a base station as itsserving base station during flight on a flight route. For example, whenthe UAV 105 selects the base station 120A as its serving base station,the base station 120A may assign a communication channel to the UAV 105based on radio resource management of the base station 120A withinbounds identified by the aerial traffic management system 130 in thechannel allocation instructions. In some aspects, different portions ofthe airspace may be associated with different channel allocationinstructions, such as to account for differences in the distribution ofavailable and/or utilized channel resources of the RAN 120 forconnecting to UAVs flying in the different portions.

With reference to FIG. 1, flight beyond the line of sight of the UAV 105may be facilitated through a pre-programmed flight route provided by theaerial traffic management system 130. A flight route 140 may be definedby a set of points, including a starting point 145A, destination point145B, and points 150A-C labeled in FIG. 1, at which the UAV 105 islocated, has been located, or is expected to be located. Each point maybe associated with a set of three-dimensional coordinates (e.g.,longitude or longitude range, latitude or latitude range, altitude oraltitude range). For example, in delivery applications, the startingpoint 145A may be a warehouse at which the UAV 105 is provided with thepayload (e.g., a package) to be delivered and the destination point 145Bmay be, for example, a customer's house, a post office or courierservice office, or other destination from which the payload is to berouted to the customer.

The flight route 140 may include changes in latitude, longitude, and/oraltitude throughout the route, as shown in FIG. 1 for example. In thisregard, the aerial traffic management system 130 may determine that ashortest path between two base stations may not be feasible (e.g., dueto temporary or permanent obstacles) and/or may not be associated withefficient air traffic (e.g., in presence of other UAVs). For instance,in some cases, while the shortest path may be implemented in geographicareas in which air traffic is sparse, the shortest path is notnecessarily optimal for cases in which the air traffic is heavy withUAVs of different sizes, shapes, speeds, and/or applications. Forexample, the aerial traffic management system 130 may determine that asmoother (e.g., fewer turns and/or fewer changes in altitude) butlengthier route would be preferable to a shorter distance route for aUAV that is carrying a fragile payload (e.g., customer package, fragileequipment), e.g., to reduce probability of the payload being damaged. Insome cases, the flight route may identify the positions of one or morecharging stations that the UAV may utilize if needed.

At the points 145A and 150A, the UAV 105 may be within the line of sightof the user device 115. Within the line of sight, the UAV 105 mayreceive control signals directly from the user device 115. At the points145B, 150B, and 150C, the UAV 105 may be beyond the line of sight of theuser device 115. Different base stations may provide better signalstrength at the different points 145A-B and 150A-C. For example, amongthe base stations 120A-C, the base station 120A may be generallyassociated with the highest signal strength at the point 145A, whereasthe base station 120B may be generally associated with highest signalstrength at the point 150B.

As shown in FIG. 1, the coverage areas 125A-C of the base stations120A-C may overlap. The coverage areas 125A-C may represent the coverageareas of the base stations 120A-C at ground level. The UAV 105 may bewithin range of two or more of the base stations 120A-C. For example,the UAV 105 may be within range of the base stations 120A and 120B in anoverlap region 155. Based on a specific position of the UAV 105, signalstrength between the UAV 105 and the base station 120A may be differentfrom (e.g., stronger than, weaker than) signal strength between the UAV105 and the base station 120B. In some cases, the overlap in thecoverage regions may be more pronounced at flight altitudes than atground level, such as due to fewer obstructions, and the overlap may beassociated with regions of higher interference impact to the cellularnetwork.

During flight on the flight route, the UAV 105 may select a serving basestation based on relative signal strengths of different base stationsand generate measurement reports containing power measurementsassociated with the serving base station and/or other surround basestations (e.g., neighbor base stations of the serving base station). TheUAV 105 communicates with its serving base station via a communicationchannel assigned to the UAV 105 by the serving base station. Forexample, between the points 145A and 150B, the UAV 105 may select thebase station 120A as its serving base station and perform measurements(e.g., power measurements) on signals transmitted to and received fromthe base station 120A and base stations 120B-C by the UAV 105. In thisexample, the measurements associated with the base stations 120B-C maybe indicative of the interference impact of the UAV 105 on the basestations 120B-C when the UAV 105 is connected to the base station 120A.The base station 120A, as the serving base station of the UAV 105,decodes signals received from the UAV 105, whereas any signals receivedby the base stations 120B-C from the UAV 105 is considered noise (e.g.,also referred to as uplink interference noise or simply interferencenoise) to the base stations 120B-C. The UAV 105 may select other basestations as its serving base station during the flight (e.g., based onrelative signal strengths associated with different base stations). Forexample, between the points 150B and 150C, the UAV 105 may select thebase station 120C as its serving base station. A handover of the UAV 105from the base station 120A to the base station 120C may occur at oraround the position 150B.

The aerial traffic management system 130 may generate flight routes tobe pre-programmed (e.g., preloaded) into UAVs (e.g., the UAV 105) and/orother aerial devices, such as the flight route 140 in FIG. 1, inresponse to requests for flight routes to be flown by the UAVs. Theaerial traffic management system 130 may also generate channelallocation instructions associated with the flight routes. The aerialtraffic management system 130 may generate a flight route and associatedcommunication channel allocation instructions based on flight planinformation provided by the operator(s) of the UAVs and geographicinformation associated with geographic regions encompassing the startingpoints and destination points. For example, the aerial trafficmanagement system 130 may determine flight routes based at least in parton the interference impact of UAVs on different portions of theairspace.

In some cases, the aerial traffic management system 130 may adjust theflight routes and associated channel allocation instructions based onchanges to the flight plan and/or geographic information. The adjustedflight routes may be sent to the UAVs prior to flight of the UAVs (e.g.,if the UAVs have not started flight on the flight route) or duringflight of the UAVs (e.g., if the UAVs have already started flight on theflight route). During flight of the UAVs on the flight route, the aerialtraffic management system 130 may adjust and readjust the flight routeand/or channel allocation instructions in real-time as appropriate basedon any changes (e.g., updates) to the flight plan (e.g., from theoperator of the UAV 105) and/or the geographic information. In thisregard, the aerial traffic management system 130 may adjust the channelallocation instructions provided to the cellular network to reduceinterference contributed (e.g., or reduce interference expected to becontributed) by the UAV 105 to the cellular network, e.g., wheninterference impact of the UAV 105 and/or other aerial devices (e.g.,individually and/or collectively) is above a threshold. For example,when the UAV 105 is streaming high definition video (e.g., for real-timevirtual sightseeing applications), the aerial traffic management system130 may lower the bit rates allocatable by the RAN 120 to the UAV 105 inorder to reduce interference impact associated with the UAV 105.

In some cases, the aerial traffic management system 130 may provide astart time, end time, and/or time duration within which the UAV 105flies on the flight route. In some cases, such as when the startingpoint 145A and destination point 145B are within a sparsely populatedregion, the aerial traffic management system 130 might not specify thestart time and/or end time. For example, in a region with little to noair traffic, the aerial traffic management system 130 may indicate thatthe UAV 105 may be flown at any time (e.g., aside from any regulationsassociated with when UAVs may and may not be flown in a given geographicregion).

The operator(s) may transmit the flight plan information to the aerialtraffic management system 130 using the UAV 105 and/or the user device115. The flight plan information from the UAV 105 and/or the user device115 may include the starting point 145A and the destination point 145Bthat the UAV 105 needs to traverse. The UAV 105 and/or user device 115may provide other flight plan information to the aerial trafficmanagement system 130 such as, by way of non-limiting example, apreferred departure time(s) (e.g., from the starting point), a preferredarrival time(s) (e.g., at the destination point), a preferred flightduration, characteristics/capabilities of the UAV 105 (e.g., size,shape, battery capacity, average flight speed, maximum flight speed,maximum flight altitude, wind resistance), and/or other characteristicsassociated with flight from the starting point 145A to the destinationpoint 145B.

In some cases, the flight plan information may define a missionassociated with the requested flight and possibly related information.The mission may include one or more actions to be performed by the UAV105 at the starting point 145A, destination point 145B, and/or en routefrom the starting point 145A to the destination point 145B. The missionends when the action(s) are successfully completed (e.g., the packagereaches the destination point 145B) or the mission is aborted. Abortedmissions can be redefined or resumed at a later time if appropriate. Fora delivery application, the mission may include delivering a packagefrom the starting point 145A to the destination point 145B. Informationrelated to the mission may include importance of meeting a departuretime and/or an arrival time, presence of fragile payload, expectedcellular traffic associated with package delivery (e.g., sendingmessages to an intended recipient of the package prior to and/or uponleaving the package at the destination point 145B), and/or otherinformation. For a flight test, the mission may include performingmeasurements on signals received at the starting point 145A, destinationpoint 145B, and/or various other points along the flight route, andgenerating reports (e.g., measurement reports) based on themeasurements.

The channel allocation instructions may be based at least on the missionto be performed. For example, when the mission is associated withstreaming video, the channel allocation instructions may allow higherbit rates to be assigned to the UAV 105 when radio resources areavailable. In some embodiments, different portions of the airspace maybe associated with different channel allocation instructions, such as toaccount for differences in the distribution of available and/or utilizedchannel resources of the RAN 120 for providing connectivity to UAVsflying in the different portions.

The aerial traffic management system 130 may also generate the flightroute and channel allocation instructions for connecting to the cellularnetwork during flight on the flight route based on geographicinformation. The geographic information may include positioninformation, obstacle information, weather information, trafficmanagement information, emergency/critical broadcast information, and/orgenerally any other static and dynamic information associated withassociated geographic regions. In some cases, the aerial trafficmanagement system 130 may receive or obtain the geographic informationfrom one or more sources (e.g., sensors, meteorological services,information services) that provide such information to, or provide suchinformation for access by, the core network 135 and/or aerial trafficmanagement system 130.

The position information may be three-dimensional positions, includingaltitudes, associated with each associated geographic region, such aspositions of the starting point 145A, destination point 145B, and basestations (e.g., the base stations 120A-C and/or other base stations)within the geographic region. In some cases, one or more of the basestations 120A-C may be mobile (e.g., mobile base stations at groundlevel, mobile base stations at flight altitudes, mobile naval-based basestations, etc.), in which case its position information is dynamic.

The obstacle information may identify buildings, bridges, trees, basestations, mountains, and/or other obstacles that may affect flight ofthe UAVs, and positions (e.g., in three-dimensions) associated with eachobstacle. In some cases, the obstacle information may identify obstaclesthat may affect takeoff and landing of the UAVs. The weather informationmay identity weather of the geographic area, such as windspeed/direction, rain, fog, hail, etc. The emergency broadcastinformation may identify traffic incidences and/or no-fly zones (e.g.,temporary no-fly zones due to these traffic incidences).

The traffic management information may include performancecharacteristics associated generally with the cellular network and moreparticularly with the base stations 120A-C and/or other base stations ofthe RAN 120. By way of non-limiting example, the performancecharacteristics may include accessibility (e.g., radio resource control(RRC) setup success rate), mobility (e.g., handover success rate),utilization/occupancy, interference impact of accommodating (e.g.,providing cellular connectivity to) UAVs, and/or other characteristics.The traffic management information may include cellular trafficstatistics associated with ground-based UEs and/or aerial-based UEs.

In some cases, the performance indicators may be, may include, or may bereferred to as, key performance indicators (KPIs). Examples of KPIs mayinclude those provided in the 3GPP standard, including accessibility,retainability, integrity, availability, and mobility. For example, theutilization/occupancy (also referred to as utilization rate or occupancyrate) associated with a base station may be, or may be indicative of, aratio of an average amount of data traffic associated with the basestation to a capacity of the base station (e.g., amount of data trafficthat can be supported at any given time by the base station). Theutilization/occupancy associated with the base station may be differentfor different times of day and/or different days of the week, may bedifferent on holidays, etc. The flight routes and associated start/endtimes may be generated based at least in part on theutilization/occupancy information of different base stations, such as tobetter distribute data traffic among the base stations to reduceprobability of overloading some base stations and underutilizing otherbase stations. The data traffic associated with UEs (e.g., differenttypes of UEs) may be determined and taken into consideration whengenerating the flight plans. In this manner, efficiency of the cellularnetwork may be improved.

In an aspect, the traffic management information may provide informationindicative of signal strengths and/or interference impact at differentfrequency bands and/or at different positions (e.g., altitudes,longitudes, and/or latitudes). In this regard, the traffic managementinformation may provide preferred channel characteristics (e.g.,frequency bands, bit rates, etc.) at different altitudes.

In some embodiments, the aerial traffic management system 130 may beprovided by a mobile network operator and may utilize trafficinformation, including air traffic information, associated with devicesconnecting to the cellular networks provided by the mobile networkoperator, as well as traffic information (e.g., air traffic information)not associated with cellular networks provided by the mobile networkoperator. In this regard, in some cases, in generating the flight plansby the mobile network operator, the aerial traffic management system 130may determine air traffic information that is not associated with themobile network operator. Air traffic information not associated with themobile network operator may include air traffic information associatedwith other mobile network operators, air traffic information associatedwith non-network devices (e.g., UAVs used as emergency beacons), airtraffic information associated with government agencies, and/or otherinformation relating to air traffic not associated with the mobilenetwork operator. In some cases, the aerial traffic management system130 may receive air traffic information from one or more other mobilenetwork operators, such as flight routes generated by other mobilenetwork operators. In some cases, the aerial traffic management system130 may receive air traffic information from another party, such as fromlocal authorities that manage air traffic sensors and/orgenerate/distribute air traffic statistics, crowdsourcing (e.g., fromusers that provide air traffic information about particular locationsand/or air traffic incidences), and/or other sources.

In some aspects, the core network 135 and/or the aerial trafficmanagement system 130 may facilitate (e.g., coordinate) flight teststhrough various flight routes (e.g., defined by longitude, latitude, andaltitude ranges) to collect geographic information along the flightroutes. For example, the collected information may be used to determinesignal interferences and/or problem spots in the cellular network. Forthe flight tests, the mobile network operator of the cellular networkmay deploy one or more UAVs whose missions are to fly on respectiveflight routes to gather signal strength and/or other signal diagnosticsassociated with different components of the cellular network, such asdifferent base stations.

In an aspect, using the flight tests, the aerial traffic managementsystem 130 may determine signal strength statistics at differentpositions (e.g., altitudes, longitudes, and/or latitudes) and/ordifferent frequency bands based on the measurement reports generated bythe UEs. In some cases, the aerial traffic management system 130 maydetermine signal strengths and/or interference impact at differentfrequency bands and/or at different positions.

In some cases, the aerial traffic management system 130 may assign aninterference index to a portion of the airspace may be determined basedon measurements gathered by the flight tests. The interference index maybe based at least on uplink noise associated with (e.g., contributed by,caused by) the UAVs flying through the portion of the airspace. In somecases, the uplink noise may include the noise experienced by the servingbase station of a UAV and/or surrounding base stations of the servingbase station. The measurement reports may include information pertainingto, or information derivable into, noise levels experienced by theserving base station and/or surrounding base stations of the servingbase station. The surrounding base stations may be neighbor basestations of the serving base station.

When generating and managing flight routes and/or channel allocationinstructions for UAVs and/or other devices at flight altitude, theaerial traffic management system 130 complies with FAA requirements orrecommendations, including temporary flight restrictions (e.g.,temporary event such as wildfire or security-related event,stadiums/sporting events), restricted airspace, airport-relatedrestrictions, local flight ordinances, and/or others. Other flightrecommendations and/or requirements may be taken into consideration,such as any recommended or required minimum/maximum flight altitudeand/or minimum/maximum flight speed. Similarly, the UAV 105 is operatedto maintain a minimum distance separation between the UAV 105 and otherUAVs, and/or between the UAV 105 and obstacles, e.g., such as minimumdistance separation requirements or recommendations from the FAA.

In some embodiments, the airspace may be partitioned (e.g., divided,defined) into air corridors (e.g., also referred to as flight corridors,drone corridors, or drone air corridors), such as by an authority suchas the FAA, through which UAVs are allowed to fly. Definitions of theair corridors may be adjusted by the authority. In such embodiments, theaerial traffic management system 130 may retrieve definitions of the aircorridors (e.g., from a database provided by the FAA) and generateflight routes by selecting and connecting one or more air corridors.Different air corridors may be associated with different geographicinformation (e.g., obstacle information, weather information, trafficmanagement information including interference impact, etc.).

As an example, FIG. 2 illustrates an example of air corridors. Theaerial traffic management system 130 may generate the flight route 140by selecting from those air corridors shown in FIG. 2 and other aircorridors not shown in FIG. 2. In FIG. 2, air corridors 205, 210, 215,220, 225, 230, and 235 encompass the flight route 140. Examples of aircorridors (e.g., 250) that are outside of the flight route 140 are alsoshown in FIG. 2. In some cases, the UAV 105 has autonomy on whichpositions within each air corridor 205, 210, 215, 220, 225, 230, and 235to fly on the flight route 140, and may leverage its onboard sensors tonavigate within each air corridor (e.g., to avoid collisions). In somecases, the aerial traffic management system 130 may specify a speed(e.g., average speed) at which the UAV 105 needs to traverse an aircorridor and/or a time duration within which to completely traverse anair corridor (e.g., time from entering an air corridor to exiting theair corridor), e.g., for facilitating air traffic flow. Although the aircorridors are depicted as cylindrically-shaped volumes of space, the aircorridors may be other shapes.

As shown in FIG. 2, in an aspect, air corridors may be defined (e.g., bythe FAA) for portions of the flight route 140 above a certain altitudewhereas a remaining portion 240 of the flight route 140 between aposition 245 and the destination point 145B is below this altitude. TheUAV 105 may leverage its onboard sensors to navigate the remainingportion 240. In this regard, in some embodiments, a flight routeprovided by the aerial traffic management system 130 may include onlyportions encompassed by air corridors. For example, the aerial trafficmanagement system 130 may define a flight route from the starting point145A to the position 245 and provide such a flight route to the UAV 105.The aerial traffic management system 130 may instruct (e.g., implicitlyor explicitly) the UAV 105 to autonomously fly to the destination point145B from the position 245. In this regard, flight from the position 245to the destination point 145B may be referred to as a “last mile.”Similarly, in some cases, such as when a starting point is below acertain altitude, the UAV 105 may leverage its onboard sensors tonavigate a “first mile” or distance to reach a beginning of a flightroute.

In an embodiment, when the airspace is partitioned into air corridors,the aerial traffic management system 130 may associate each air corridorwith one or more interference indices. For example, an air corridor thatis smaller, has less traffic (e.g., aerial and/or ground traffic),and/or has uniform distribution of traffic may be associated with asingle interference index. An air corridor that is larger, has moretraffic, and/or has non-uniform distribution of traffic (e.g., aircorridor spans different parts of a city) may be partitioned (e.g., bythe aerial traffic management system 130) into different portions of theair corridor, with each portion associated with an interference index.

When an air corridor is associated with multiple interference indices,the interference indices may be collectively referred to as aninterference index pattern of the air corridor. The interference indexpattern may provide a map between a portion of the airspace and itscorresponding interference index. The granularity (e.g., size of eachportion of the air corridor) with which the aerial traffic managementsystem 130 associates an interference index may be based on an averageamount of network traffic (e.g., aerial- and/or ground-based networktraffic) through the air corridor or portion thereof, average amount ofphysical traffic (e.g., air-based traffic, pedestrians, etc.) throughthe air corridor, under the air corridor, or portion thereof, and/orother considerations.

In an embodiment, the aerial traffic management system 130 may associateeach air corridor with an interference index pattern based on theinterference impact determined by the aerial traffic management system130 for UAVs flying within the corridor. The interference index patternfor a corridor may include one or more interference indices at differentpositional ranges (e.g., longitude range, latitude range, altituderange) within the corridor, with each interference index being based onstatistics (e.g., averages, variances, and/or others) derived from themeasurement reports. The aerial traffic management system 130 mayassociate a different interference index to different portions of thecorridor due to variability of the interference impact of UAVs at thedifferent portions of the corridor. For example, the interference indexpattern of a smaller corridor may include fewer interference indicesthan a larger corridor. In this regard, the interference index patternmay be indicative of an expected/estimated interference impact of a UAVon the radio access network when the UAV is flying through theassociated air corridor. The partitioning of an air corridor (e.g.,number, size, and/or shape of partitions) and/or an interference indexor interference index pattern may be adjusted as measurement reports arereceived and processed and may change based on time of day, day of week,holidays, etc.

As an example, FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a partitioning of theair corridor 215 in accordance with one or more embodiments of thepresent disclosure. An x-axis may be indicative of an east-westdirection (e.g., longitude direction). A y-axis may be indicative of anorth-south direction (e.g., latitude direction). A z-axis of may beindicative of altitude. In an aspect, each partition (e.g., alsoreferred to as portion) of the air corridor 215 is a volumetric spacewithin the air corridor 215 and is defined by a range of x-coordinates,range of y-coordinates, and range of z-coordinates. As an example,partitions 215A, 215B, and 215C of the air corridor 215 are labeled.Each partition of the air corridor 215 may be associated with (e.g.,assigned) an interference index based on a determined interferenceimpact associated with the partition. The interference indices of thedifferent partitions of the air corridor 215 collectively provide aninterference index pattern of the air corridor 215.

As an example, each interference index may be one of three valuesrepresented as n₁, n₂, and n₃. A partition (e.g., 215A, 215B, 215C) ofthe air corridor 215 may be set to n₁ when the uplink noise associatedwith accommodation of a UAV at flight altitude (e.g., the UAV 105) islower than a first threshold value, n₃ when the uplink noise is higherthan a second threshold value that is higher than the first thresholdvalue, and n₂ when the uplink noise is between the first and secondthreshold values. In this regard, n₁, n₂, and n₃ may be referred to aslow interference impact, medium interference impact, and highinterference impact, respectively. For example, the first and secondthreshold values may be 2 dB and 4 dB, respectively. In some cases, thevalues n₁, n₂, and n₃ may be assigned further based on a thresholdpercentage of base stations affected by the uplink noise. For example, apartition of the air corridor 215 may be set to n₁ when the uplink noiseis lower than 2 dB for at least 80% of base stations that may be used asserving base stations for UAVs flying in the partition of the aircorridor. The base stations that may be used as serving base stationsmay be determined (e.g., statistically determined) based on which basestations UAVs connect to, e.g., by UAVs implementing controlled testflights as well as UAVs flying as part of a mission (e.g.,customer/consumer UAVs).

Although FIG. 3 provides an example in which the partitions of the aircorridor are of different shapes and/or sizes, the shape and/or size ofdifferent partitions of an air corridor may be of identical. Inaddition, more, fewer, and/or different possible interference indexvalues and associated threshold values may be utilized. In some cases,such as for small air corridors and/or air corridors with relativelylittle aerial traffic and/or cellular traffic, the air corridor is asingle partition (e.g., not partitioned) and is associated with a singleinterference index. As indicated previously, in an aspect, thepartitioning of an air corridor (e.g., number, size, and/or shape ofpartitions) and/or an interference index or interference index patternmay be adjusted as measurement reports are received and processed andmay change based on time of day, day of week, holidays, etc. Similarly,the possible interference index values and associated threshold valuesmay be adjusted as measurement reports are received and processed andmay change based on time of day, day of week, holidays, etc. In somecases, the interference index values may be real numbers rather thaninteger numbers. For instance, the interference index values may berepresented in terms of dB per PRB.

FIG. 4 illustrates a flow diagram of an example process 400 forfacilitating maintaining network connectivity of aerial devices duringunmanned flight in accordance with one or more embodiments of thepresent disclosure. For explanatory purposes, the example process 400 isdescribed herein with reference to the example network environment 100of FIG. 1; however, the example process 400 is not limited to theexample network environment 100 of FIG. 1. For example, the exampleprocess 400 may be with reference to one or more UEs (e.g., UAVs) and/orone or more base stations not shown in FIG. 1. Note that one or moreoperations may be combined, omitted, and/or performed in a differentorder as desired.

At block 405, the UAV 105 performs an authentication procedure with thecore network 135 by transmitting authentication data associated with theUAV 105 to the core network 135. The authentication procedure may beinitiated by the UAV 105 or the core network 135. In some cases, the UAV105 may initiate the authentication procedure (e.g., based on usersettings). For example, the UAV 105 may initiate the authenticationprocedure as part of a stored information cell selection or an initialcell selection (e.g., upon switching on the UAV 105 or upon the UAV 105finding no suitable cell using stored information cell selection).Alternatively and/or in addition, in some cases, the core network 135may initiate the authentication procedure by sending an authenticationrequest to the UAV 105, e.g., in response to the UAV 105 attempting toconnect to one of the base stations (e.g., one of the base stations120A-C or other base station) of the RAN 120.

The authentication procedure may be conducted via messages communicatedbetween the UAV 105 and the core network 135. In an aspect, in cellularcommunication protocols such as UMTS and LTE, the messages may includenon-access stratum (NAS) messages communicated between the UAV 105 andan MME of the core network 135. In this aspect, the UAV 105 may includethe authentication data in one or more NAS messages are transmitted to abase station (e.g., a base station selected by the UAV 105 as itsserving base station) and forwarded by the base station to the MME.

In an embodiment, the core network 135 (e.g., the MME of the corenetwork 135) and/or the aerial traffic management system 130 facilitatesauthentication of the UAV 105 to the core network 135 based at least onthe authentication data provided by the UAV 105. In this regard, thecore network 135 may communicate (e.g., exchange messages) with theaerial traffic management system 130 to authenticate the UAV 105 to thecore network 135. For example, the core network 135 may store, maintain,and/or otherwise have access to profiles of subscribed users and/or UEsand may provide information associated with such profiles to the aerialtraffic management system 130, and the aerial traffic management system130 may coordinate accessibility of UAVs to the RAN 120 based on theinformation from the core network 135.

In an aspect, the authentication data may include an indication that theUAV 105 is a device operated at or to be operated at flight altitude. Insome cases, the indication may be a previous identifier (e.g., uniqueidentifier) associated by the cellular network with the UAV 105 thatties the UAV 105 to a subscribed UE profile, and the profile mayindicate that the UAV 105 is a UAV. Alternatively and/or in addition,the indication may include an identifier (e.g., a binary value) that theUAV 105 may provide to identify itself as being a device operated at orto be operated at flight altitude.

In some cases, the core network 135 associates the UAV 105 with theaerial traffic management system 130 in cases that authentication datafrom the UAV 105 identifies the UAV 105 as a device operated at or to beoperated at flight altitude. In this regard, the core network 135 atleast partially offloads the UAV 105 to the aerial traffic managementsystem 130, such that resources of the aerial traffic management system130 are utilized to handle the UAV 105. Alternatively and/or inaddition, in some cases, the core network 135 does not associate non-UAVUEs with the aerial traffic management system 130. In these cases, theaerial traffic management system 130 does not generally manageconnectivity of non-UAV UEs to the cellular network.

Upon successful authentication of the UAV 105 to the core network 135,at block 410, the core network 135 and/or the aerial traffic managementsystem 130 may assign a telemetry channel to the UAV 105. The telemetrychannel may be a communication channel dedicated to be used by the UAV105 to transmit (e.g., periodically and/or aperiodically) telemetryinformation associated with the UAV 105 and/or flight plan information.The telemetry channel may be for communication between the UAV 105 andone or both of the aerial traffic management system 130 or the corenetwork 135. By way of non-limiting example, the telemetry informationmay include a current location (e.g., latitude, longitude, altitude) ofthe UAV 105, current heading, current speed, current battery level,ambient weather (e.g., temperature, rain, hail, snow) at the currentlocation, and/or other information. Such information may be transmittedby the UAV 105 to the core network 135 and/or aerial traffic managementsystem 130 via the telemetry channel when at ground level and duringflight of the UAV 105. Such information may be to monitor the UAV 105 todetermine that the UAV 105 stays on the flight route, control the UAV105 when needed, help locate the UAV 105 if connectivity to the UAV 105is lost, among others.

In some cases, the core network 135 and/or the aerial traffic managementsystem 130 may indicate to the UAV 105 to interface with (e.g.,communicate with) the aerial traffic management system 130 to facilitateflight of the UAV 105. In this regard, the UAV 105 may interface withthe aerial traffic management system 130 to request a flight routeand/or during flight of the UAV 105.

It is noted that generally any transmitted messages (e.g., NAS messages)from the UAV 105 to the aerial traffic management system 130 and/or thecore network 135 are forwarded by the RAN 120 (e.g., a serving basestation of the UAV 105) to the aerial traffic management system 130and/or the core network 135. Similarly, any messages received by the UAV105 from the aerial traffic management system 130 and/or the corenetwork 135 may be forwarded to the UAV 105 by the RAN 120.

At block 415, the UAV 105 transmits a flight plan to the aerial trafficmanagement system 130. The UAV 105 may transmit the flight plan usingthe telemetry channel assigned to the UAV 105. The flight plan mayinclude information associated with (e.g., indicative of) a startingpoint (e.g., 145A), a destination point (e.g., 145B), and a mission. Themission may include one or more actions to be performed (e.g.,successfully accomplished) by the UAV 105. For example, in a deliveryapplication of the UAV 105, the mission may involve delivering a packagefrom the starting point 145A to the destination point 145B, with themission being completed when the package is delivered to the destinationpoint 145B. In some cases, the UAV 105 may indicate frequency,bandwidth, bit rate, communication protocol, and/or othercommunication-related characteristics requested by the UAV 105 from thecellular network.

At block 420, the aerial traffic management system 130 transmits aflight route (e.g., 140) to the UAV 105. The flight route may beassociated with a start time, an end time, and/or a time duration. Theaerial traffic management system 130 may associate the flight route(e.g., the associated mission) with an identifier that the UAV 105 usesto identify the flight route or related information (e.g., theassociated mission) to the cellular network. In this manner, actions(e.g., including flight) performed by the UAV 105 in relation to theflight route can be monitored. The aerial traffic management system 130may generate the flight route based on the flight plan from the UAV 105and geographic information associated with a geographic region thatencompasses the starting point (e.g., 145A) and the destination point(e.g., 145B). The geographic information may include interferenceinformation, such as interference index patterns associated withdifferent portions of the airspace. For the flight plan from the UAV105, the aerial traffic management system 130 may identify a geographicregion (e.g., define boundaries of a geographic region) that encompassesthe starting point 145A and the destination point 145B provided in theflight plan. The aerial traffic management system 130 may define thegeographic region to narrow the geographic scope the aerial trafficmanagement system 130 needs to consider when determining the flightroutes, e.g., to conserve on computation time and resources.

In some embodiments, the flight route from the starting point to thedestination point may be provided as a single airspace corridor or oneor more connected airspace corridors. In some cases, the flight routemay be provided finer granularity than the airspace corridors, such thatthe flight route defines positions/boundaries within each air corridorthat the UAV 105 is to fly.

In some cases, the flight plan may be transmitted to the aerial trafficmanagement system 130 by the user device 115 alternatively and/or inaddition to the UAV 105 transmitting the flight plan. The flight planmay be sent by the UAV 105 and/or user device 115 to the core network135 and/or aerial traffic management system 130. Similarly, the aerialtraffic management system 130 may transmit the flight route andassociated information in one or more messages to the UAV 105 and/or theuser device 115 (e.g., for the user device 115 to relay to the UAV 105).As another example, the aerial traffic management system 130 may allowthe UAV 105 and/or the user device 115 to retrieve the generated flightroute information, e.g., stored locally at the aerial traffic managementsystem 130 and/or at a remote memory (e.g., memory of a remote server)associated with the aerial traffic management system 130.

In some embodiments, the operator of the UAV 105 and/or user device 115may generate a flight plan, via an interface, such as a user interfaceprovided by a website and/or application program, and provide thegenerated the flight plan to the aerial traffic management system 130.The website and/or application program may be provided by one or moremobile network operators and/or another party to facilitate flight routegeneration and management. In response to receiving the operator'sproposed flight plan, the aerial traffic management system 130 maygenerate a flight route and related information (e.g., start time, endtime).

The interface may facilitate generation of the flight plan by theoperator, and the operator may provide information on some or all fields(e.g., of a form) pertaining to the flight plan (e.g., starting point,destination point, departure and arrival time, actions to be performedon the flight). The aerial traffic management system 130 may identifyany fields not filled in by the operator as the operator having nopreference or attributing a lowest importance/priority to the field,such as when the operator does not specify a departure time and anarrival time. In some cases, the aerial traffic management system 130may generate one or more potential flight routes based on informationprovided and information not provided by the operator and allowselection of a flight route by the operator.

At block 425, the RAN 120 and aerial traffic management system 130assigns a communication channel to the UAV 105. In an embodiment, theaerial traffic management system 130 may provide the channel allocationinstructions to a serving base station of the UAV 105, and the servingbase station assigns the communication channel (e.g., physical radiochannel) for connecting the UAV 105 to the RAN 120 in accordance withthe radio channel allocation instructions. The channel allocationinstructions may be generated for connecting the UAV 105 to the RAN 120and maintaining connectivity during flight of the UAV 105. In thisregard, in some cases, the channel allocation instructions need not beapplied prior to the UAV 105 initiating flight over the flight route. Asthe UAV 105 is handed over between base stations (e.g., during flight ofthe UAV 105), each base station that is selected as a serving basestation of the UAV 105 assigns a communication channel to the UAV 105based on the channel allocation instructions. In some cases, blocks 420and 425 may occur simultaneously or nearly simultaneously.

The channel allocation instructions are used by the base stations 120A-Cand/or any base stations to establish a communication channel with theUAV 105 when the UAV 105 attempts to connect to these base stations enroute to the destination point. The channel allocation instructions mayindicate one or more frequency bands, bit rate range (e.g., minimumand/or maximum allowed bit rate), a communication protocol, and/ortype/category of LTE technology to be used by the radio access networkto define a communication channel for the UAV 105. For example, when theUAV 105 selects the base station 120A as its serving base station, thebase station 120A may assign a communication channel to the UAV 105based on radio resource management of the base station 120A withinbounds identified by the aerial traffic management system 130 in thechannel allocation instructions. In some embodiments, different portionsof the airspace may be associated with different channel allocationinstructions, such as to account for differences in the distribution ofavailable and/or utilized channel resources of the RAN 120 forconnecting to UAVs flying in the different portions.

In some cases, the aerial traffic management system 130 may determinewhether the UAV 105 is qualified to perform the mission. As an example,the UAV 105 may need to be able to fly at a certain speed to satisfy anexpected flight time. As another example, the aerial traffic managementsystem 130 may determine whether the UAV 105 is certified (e.g., by anappropriate authority) to perform the mission. Certain missions may beregulated. For example, video streaming missions may need to abide byregulations, such as operating in specific frequency bands, using anantenna having certain characteristics (e.g., antenna that meets aminimum antenna efficiency requirement), etc. When the UAV 105 isdetermined not to be qualified (e.g., certified) for the mission, theaerial traffic management system 130 may transmit instructions to theoperator (e.g., via the UAV 105 and/or the user device 115) to redefinethe flight plan (e.g., the mission) or abort the flight plan. Thecommunication channel assigned at block 425 may be used to performactions associated with the mission during flight on the flight route.The communication channel is separate from the telemetry channel, whichis dedicated to be used by the UAV 105 to transmit telemetry informationassociated with the UAV 105 during flight on the flight route andreceive adjustments to the flight route if adjustments are needed.

The UAV 105 receives and loads the flight route. In this regard, theflight route may be referred to as a pre-programmed flight route of theUAV 105. In some cases, the UAV 105 may transmit a message toacknowledge the flight route received from the aerial traffic managementsystem 130. At block 430, the UAV 105 initiates flight from the startingpoint to the destination point in accordance with the flight route. Atblock 435, the UAV 105 transmits measurement reports to a serving basestation of the UAV 105 during flight over the flight route. Suchmeasurement reports may be transmitted periodically or aperiodically.For example, with reference to FIG. 1, the UAV 105 may select adifferent base station for different portions of the flight route (e.g.,based on respective signal strength of different base stations). In somecases, the measurement reports and/or information derived from themeasurement reports (e.g., by the serving base station that receives themeasurement reports) may be transmitted by the serving base station tothe core network 135 and/or aerial traffic management system 130. Themeasurement reports and/or information derived therefrom may be analyzedand utilized to update the geographic information, adjust the existingflight route of the UAV 105 and/or existing flight routes of other UAVsas appropriate based on the updated geographic information, and generatenew flight routes based on the updated geographic information.

At block 440, the aerial traffic management system 130 transmits (e.g.,via the telemetry channel) an adjusted flight route based on a detectedevent. In this regard, the aerial traffic management system 130 maydetect the event based on information received by the aerial trafficmanagement system 130 from various sources (e.g., weather channels, lawenforcement authorities, emergency broadcasts, crowdsourcing fromground- and/or aerial-based UEs). In this regard, at least a portion ofthe flight route provided to the UAV 105 at block 420 is adjusted. In anembodiment, when the flight route transmitted at block 420 is definedusing a set of air corridors, the adjusted flight route may include adifferent set of air corridors (e.g., at least one air corridor of theadjusted flight route is different from the pre-adjusted flight route)on which the UAV 105 is to be flown. In some cases, the detected eventmay be associated with an air corridor currently being navigated by theUAV 105. In some cases, the UAV 105 may be within an air corridorassociated with the detected event, in which case the UAV 105 may needto maneuver out of the air corridor and into an air corridor identifiedin the adjusted flight route. In other cases, the adjustment may be foran air corridor not yet reached by the UAV 105.

At block 445, the UAV 105 continues flight in accordance with theadjusted flight route. In this regard, the UAV 105 is rerouted withregard to at least a portion of the flight route provided at block 420.The UAV 105 may transmit a message to acknowledge the adjusted flightroute received from the aerial traffic management system 130.

At block 450, the RAN 120 and aerial traffic management system 130assign a different communication channel based on a detected event. Theaerial traffic management system 130 may adjust radio channel allocationinstructions based on the detected event. The adjustment to the radiochannel allocation instructions and communication channel may bereferred to as a communication channel modification. The adjusted radiochannel allocation instructions may include an adjustment to one or moreof a frequency band allocatable to the UAV 105, a bit rate allocatableto the UAV 105, or a communication protocol for the UAV 105. Forexample, the adjustment of the communication protocol may be to migratethe UAV 105 from 4G LTE communication protocol to 4G LTE-M communicationprotocol (e.g., generally associated with lower bit rate than 4G LTE),to migrate the UAV 105 from 4G LTE communication protocol to UMTS, orother adjustment.

In an embodiment, when the UAV 105 is already flying on a portion of theflight route associated with the detected event, the aerial trafficmanagement system 130 may provide the adjusted radio channel allocationinstructions to a serving base station of the UAV 105, and the servingbase station assigns the communication channel (e.g., physicalcommunication channel) for connecting the UAV 105 to the cellularnetwork in accordance with the adjusted channel allocation instructions.When the detected event is associated with a portion of the flight routeto be flown on by the UAV 105, the aerial traffic management system 130may provide the adjusted channel allocation instructions to a basestation when the UAV 105 selects the base station as its serving basestation.

In some cases, the adjusted radio channel allocation instructions may begenerated for connecting the UAV 105 to the cellular network for aremaining portion of the flight route, absent detection of anyadditional events that cause further adjustments to the radio channelallocation instructions. In other cases, the adjusted radio channelallocation instructions may be generated for connecting the UAV 105 tothe RAN 120 during flight of the UAV 105 within a portion of the flightroute identified by the aerial traffic management system 130. Forexample, the detected event may be an interference event associated withan air corridor being traversed or to be traversed by the UAV 105, andthe adjusted radio channel allocation instructions may be used to assigna physical communication channel to the UAV 105 during flight in thisair corridor. In this example, the handover may be from a communicationchannel provided by a serving base station to a different communicationchannel provided by the same serving base station. Outside of this aircorridor, the pre-adjusted channel allocation instructions and/or otherchannel allocation instructions specified by the aerial trafficmanagement system 130 may be utilized by the RAN 120 to assign acommunication channel to the UAV 105.

In some cases, the aerial traffic management system 130 may migrate theUAV 105 or cause the UAV 105 to be migrated off of the cellular networkand onto a different technology (e.g., other cellular technology ornon-cellular technology). In such cases, the aerial traffic managementsystem 130 determines that the cellular network (e.g., the RAN 120and/or core network 135) is unable to accommodate the UAV 105.

At block 455, the UAV 105 reaches an end of the mission. If the missionis successful, the UAV 105 has reached the end of the flight route andperformed the actions associated with the mission. If the mission isunsuccessful, the UAV 105 prematurely ends (e.g., aborts) the mission.

The ellipses between block 450 and 455 may indicate additional or noadjustments to the flight route and/or assigned communication channelprior to the UAV 105 reaching the destination point 145B. In some cases,once the UAV 105 completes the flight route (e.g., reaches thedestination point 145B), communication channel allocation instructionsassociated the flight route need not be utilized. Although FIG. 4illustrates an example in which a detected event at block 440 causesadjustment of the flight route and a detected event at block 450 causesassignment of a different communication channel, other flight routes ofUAVs may be associated with fewer, more, and/or different detectedevents and/or associated adjustments during flight over the flightroutes.

In some cases, the authentication procedure may include multipleparts/steps. For example, a first part of the authentication proceduremay be based on messages (e.g., NAS messages) between a UE (e.g., theUAV 105) and the core network 135. In this first part of theauthentication procedure, the core network 135 may determine whether ornot the UE is a device operated at or to be operated at flight altitude(e.g., a UAV or other aerial device). For example, the UE may include anindication that the UE is a UAV. If the UE is identified as a UAV, thecore network 135 may offload the UE to the aerial traffic managementsystem 130 to proceed to a second part of the authentication procedure.In this second part, the UE may indicate its capabilities, includingflight capabilities (e.g., speed, availability and/or directionality ofantenna(s), etc.). A multi-step authentication procedure may be utilizedto improve efficiency of accommodating UAVs and/or other aerial devicesin the airspace by allowing the core network 135 to determine whether aUE is a UAV (or other aerial device) and offload processing of UAVs tothe aerial traffic management system 130, such that minimal processingof the core network 135 is diverted away from ground-based UEs due toUAVs.

In one or more embodiments, the aerial traffic management system 130 mayadjust the flight route (e.g., at block 440) and/or assigned physicalcommunication channel (e.g., at block 450) based on (e.g., in responseto) detected events. In an aspect, events may be, or may include,dynamic condition/variable changes associated with at least a portion ofa flight route currently being flown by the UAV 105. Such changes may bechanges in the geographic information (e.g., obstacle information,weather information, emergency/critical broadcast information, etc.)associated with at least a portion of the flight route. The flight routemay be defined using predefined air corridors (e.g., provided by anauthority such as the FAA), although in other embodiments the flightroute is defined using volumetric portions of airspace without usingpredefined air corridors. In this regard, an event may be, or mayinclude, dynamic condition/variable changes associated with an aircorridor(s), such as, by way of non-limiting example, cellular networkcongestion or outage, cellular network interference, traffic congestionwithin and/or beneath the air corridor(s), changes in atmosphericconditions, and/or generally other obstacles or changes in conditions(e.g., relative to when the pre-adjusted flight route was generated bythe aerial traffic management system 130).

The aerial traffic management system 130 may detect an event based oninformation received (e.g., in real-time) from various sourcesincluding, by way of non-limiting example, weather channels, lawenforcement authorities, emergency broadcasts, crowdsourcing fromground- and/or aerial-based UEs, RAN 120, and/or core network 135. As anexample, the aerial traffic management system 130 may detect an outageof a particular base station of the RAN 120 when the aerial trafficmanagement system 130 does not receive any messages from the basestation for at least a threshold amount of time (e.g., the base stationhas been silent for over the threshold amount of time) and/or when theaerial traffic management system 130 receives information indicative ofthe outage from one or more other sources (e.g., other base stations,measurement reports, accident report indicating base station has beenknocked over in an accident). As another example, the aerial trafficmanagement system 130 may detect congestion of a particular base stationof the RAN 120 when the aerial traffic management system 130 receives anindication of congestion of the base station from the base stationitself and/or one or more other sources (e.g., other base stations,measurement reports). For example, the base station may be determined tobe congested when occupancy of the base station is above a threshold(e.g., set by the aerial traffic management system 130). In thisexample, remaining resources of the base station may be reserved for UEsat or near ground level.

As another example, the aerial traffic management system 130 may detectunexpected crowd aggregation at altitudes below the altitudes associatedwith a flight corridor. Such crowd aggregation may be due to, forexample, concerts, fires, storms, accidents, and/or generally anysituation or event unknown to the aerial traffic management system 130prior to detection of the unexpected crowd aggregation by the aerialtraffic management system 130. For example, when the flight route isformed of one or more connected air corridors, the detected event may bea crowd aggregation at or near ground level in an area under an aircorridor. The aggregation may be due to a sudden change in weatherconditions (e.g., flash flood) that the aerial traffic management system130 unable to account for or otherwise did not account for when theflight route was generated, and may affect (e.g., reduce) the number ofUAVs that may fly in the air corridors above the aggregation (e.g., dueat least to safety concerns for the crowd) and may resources availablefor the RAN 120 to accommodate connectivity to UAVs (e.g., due toresources being used by devices associated with the crowd).

The aerial traffic management system 130 may detect an interferenceevent associated with the cellular network (e.g., the RAN 120) when theaerial traffic management system 130 receives information indicative ofinterference impact on base stations due to UAVs flying in the airspace.The interference event may be based on the interference index orinterference index pattern associated with different portions of theairspace. In some cases, the interference impact may be represented interms of dB per PRB. The interference event may be detected when theinterference impact is above a threshold.

For example, in a case that portions of the airspace are associated with(e.g., assigned, categorized into, quantized into) one of interferenceindices n₁ (e.g., low interference impact), n₂ (e.g., mediuminterference impact), or n₃ (e.g., high interference impact). In somecases, whether an interference event is detected may be based on theflight plan associated with the UAV 105. For example, if the mission ofthe UAV 105 involves low bandwidth activities, the aerial trafficmanagement system 130 may determine that an interference event isdetected in a particular portion of the airspace when the particularportion is associated with an interference index of n₃. As anotherexample, if the mission of the UAV 105 is highly resource intensive(e.g., high-definition video streaming), an interference event isdetected in a particular portion of the airspace when the particularportion is associated with an interference index of n₂ or n₃.Accommodating the UAV 105 in portions of the airspace associated with aninterference index of n₁ may allow mitigation of interference effect dueto accommodating the UAV 105 while providing a higher probability ofmaintaining a QoS provided by the cellular network to the UAV 105. Inthis regard, as indicated previously, the interference index associatedwith each portion of the airspace is indicative of an expectedinterference impact caused by accommodating UAVs and/or other aerialdevices by the cellular network, in which actions intended to beperformed by the UEs at flight altitude (e.g., as specified in theflight plan) are taken into consideration when determining interferenceimpact and what constitutes an interference event.

In an embodiment, the aerial traffic management system 130 may associatean interference index pattern with each air corridor. In thisembodiment, the aerial traffic management system 130 may determinestatistics (e.g., average, variance, and/or others) based on theinterference index pattern and determine flight routes based on thedetermined statistics. For example, when an interference index isquantified, the aerial traffic management system 130 may detect aninterference effect based on an average and/or variance of theinterference indices associated with each air corridor.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow diagram of an example process 500 forfacilitating maintaining network connectivity of aerial devices duringunmanned flight in accordance with one or more embodiments of thepresent disclosure. For explanatory purposes, the example process 500 isdescribed herein with reference to the example network environment 100of FIG. 1; however, the example process 500 is not limited to theexample network environment 100 of FIG. 1. For example, the exampleprocess 500 may be with reference to one or more UEs (e.g., UAVs) and/orone or more base stations not shown in FIG. 1. In this regard, forexplanatory purposes, in an aspect, the example process 500 is performedby the aerial traffic management system 130. Note that one or moreoperations may be combined, omitted, and/or performed in a differentorder as desired.

At block 505, the aerial traffic management system 130 provides, to atleast one base station (e.g., one of the base stations 120A-C or otherbase station) of the RAN 120, channel allocation instructions forconnecting the UAV 105 to the RAN 120 during flight of the UAV 105 on aflight route (e.g., 140). In some aspects, the aerial traffic managementsystem 130 may provide (e.g., transmit) the channel allocationinstructions to a current serving base station of the UAV 105. In thisregard, at the starting point 145A of the flight route 140, the aerialtraffic management system 130 may provide the channel allocationinstructions to a base station selected by the UAV 105 as its servingbase station. The serving base station connects to the UAV 105 via aphysical communication channel defined by the serving base station basedon the channel allocation instructions. For example, when the UAV 105selects the base station 120A as its serving base station, the basestation 120A may assign a communication channel to the UAV 105 based onradio resource management of the base station 120A within bounds (e.g.,frequency bands, bit rate range, communication protocol, etc.) specifiedby the aerial traffic management system 130 in the channel allocationinstructions. In some embodiments, different portions of the airspacemay be associated with different channel allocation instructions, suchas to account for differences in the distribution of available and/orutilized channel resources of the RAN 120 for connecting to UAVs flyingin the different portions.

When the UAV 105 is handed over from a first base station (e.g., thebase station 120A) to a second base station (e.g., the base station120B) during the flight of the UAV 105, the aerial traffic managementsystem 130 may provide the channel allocation instructions to the secondbase station and/or the second base station can be provided with thechannel allocation instructions (e.g., from the first base station) aspart of the handover procedure. The second base station may connect tothe UAV 105 via a physical communication channel defined by the secondbase station based on the channel allocation instructions. In somecases, the physical communication channel assigned by the second basestation may have properties (e.g., frequency, bit rate) that the same orsimilar as the properties of the physical communication channel assignedby the first base station.

In some cases, the aerial traffic management system 130 may indicatethat channel allocation instructions apply to the UAV 105 when (e.g.,only when) the UAV 105 is flying on the flight route. In this regard,during flight on the flight route, the UAV 105 is configured to beconnected to the radio access network via physical communicationchannels defined based at least on the channel allocation instructions.Before the UAV 105 starts the flight route (e.g., prior to flight of theUAV 105 or prior to reaching a starting point of the flight route), theRAN 120 can, but need not, define the communication channels forconnecting the UAV 105 to the RAN 120 in accordance with the channelallocation instructions. A flight start of the UAV 105 associated with aflight route (e.g., 140) may refer to the UAV 105 starting flight on theflight route at a starting point of the flight route (e.g., as definedfor the UAV 105 by the aerial traffic management system 130). Thestarting point may be in an air corridor or outside of air corridors(e.g., at lower altitudes than any pre-defined air corridors). In somecases, the channel allocation instructions may be provided to the RAN120 at flight start or prior to flight start.

At block 510, the aerial traffic management system 130 detects an eventassociated with at least a portion of the flight route of the UAV 105during the flight of the UAV 105. The flight route may be adjusted dueto detected dynamic condition/variable changes (also referred to ascriticalities) associated with the corridor(s), such as cellular networkcongestion or outage, interference above a threshold associated with thecellular network, traffic congestion within and/or beneath thecorridor(s), changes in atmospheric conditions, and/or generally otherobstacles or changes in conditions not accountable for or not taken intoconsideration when the flight route was being generated.

In response to the detected event, at block 515, the aerial trafficmanagement system 130 determines whether an alternative flight route isavailable. The aerial traffic management system 130 may determinewhether portions of the airspace outside of the flight route mayfacilitate maintaining connectivity of the UAV 105 to the RAN 120. Thedetermination may be based on interference associated with differentportions (e.g., airspaces or portions thereof). The determination may bebased on an interference index pattern and/or related statistics. Forexample, the aerial traffic management system 130 may reroute the UAV105 to portions of the airspace for which no event has been detected.Whether an alternative flight route is available may also be based onthe mission associated with the flight route of the UAV 105. Forexample, if the mission is to perform a test drive over the flight routeand the detected event is a no fly zone (e.g., due to an accident), themission may be aborted rather than rerouted since the mission itself wasto obtain information about the flight route. In contrast, if themission is to deliver a package to the destination point 145B, analternative flight route may be available.

The aerial traffic management system 130 may adaptively adjust (e.g.,reroute, update) the flight route and communicate the adjusted flightroute in real time to the flying UAV. When an alternative flight routeis determined to be available, at block 520, the aerial trafficmanagement system 130 adjusts the current flight route utilized by theUAV 105 (e.g., the pre-programmed flight route or a previously adjustedflight route) based on an available flight route. An alternative flightroute may be selected from among candidate flight routes based on theflight plan (e.g., mission) of the UAV 105 and characteristics (e.g.,battery life, desired arrival time, etc.) for example. In an aspect, theaerial traffic management system 130 may reroute the UAV 105 to one ormore different air corridors. The UAV 105 proceeds with its missionusing the adjusted flight route until the mission is complete or afurther adjustment to the flight route occurs.

When no alternative flight routes are available, at block 525, theaerial traffic management system 130 determines whether the eventdetected at block 510 is an interference event. When the event is not aninterference event, at block 530, the aerial traffic management system130 causes the mission to be aborted. For example, the aerial trafficmanagement system 130 may transmit a message (e.g., NAS message) with aninstruction to the UAV 105 to abort the mission. The message mayidentify the detected event and/or reasons for aborting the mission,such as to allow the user of the UAV 105 to better understand thesituation and/or redefine the mission. In some cases, the message fromthe aerial traffic management system 130 may identify a location atwhich the UAV 105 can land or hover (e.g., in an air corridor). In thiscase, the aerial traffic management system 130 may indicate thislocation in a message to the user device 115. For example, when the UAV105 is instructed to land at a particular location, the user can pick upthe UAV 105 (e.g., and/or a package being delivered by the UAV 105 fordelivery services) at the location. In some cases, the aerial trafficmanagement system 130 and/or the UAV 105 may store informationassociated with the aborted mission, such as to allow analysis of theaborted mission and/or allow resuming of the aborted mission at a latertime.

When the event is an interference event, at block 535, the aerialtraffic management system 130 determines whether an alternativecommunication channel is available for connecting the UAV 105 to the RAN120. The aerial traffic management system 130 may determine whether theUAV 105 may be migrated to a different radio channel to help maintainconnectivity to the RAN 120. By way of non-limiting example, the aerialtraffic management system 130 may determine whether the UAV 105 may bemigrated to a radio channel of a different frequency band, lower bitrate (e.g., lower video bit rate), different type/category (e.g.,migrate to 4G LTE-M from 4G LTE) associated with a communicationtechnology (e.g., 4G), and/or different communication technology (e.g.,UMTS). As an example, the aerial traffic management system 130 maymigrate the UAV 105 from a 4G LTE-based communication channel to a 4GLTE-M-based communication channel

At block 540, the aerial traffic management system 130 adjusts, duringflight of the UAV 105, the channel allocation instructions based on anavailable alternative communication channel. At block 545, the aerialtraffic management system 130 provides, during flight of the UAV 105,the adjust channel allocation instructions to the RAN 120.

As one example, the UAV 105 may be flying in a portion of the airspaceassociated with the detected event. In this case, the current basestation receive the adjusted channel allocation instructions and maymigrate the UAV 105 from a communication channel defined based on thechannel allocation instructions provided at block 505 to a communicationchannel defined based on the adjusted channel allocation instructions.As another example, the UAV 105 is not yet at the portion of theairspace associated with the detected event. In this case, the aerialtraffic management system 130 may determine whether the adjusted channelallocation instructions are to be used once the UAV 105 reaches theportion of the airspace or even prior to the UAV 105 reaching theportion of the airspace, and may provide the adjusted channel allocationinstructions based on the determination. For a base station instructedby the aerial traffic management system 130 to assign the UAV 105 acommunication channel based on the adjusted channel allocationinstructions, the base station may assign a communication channel to theUAV 105 based on radio resource management of the base station 120Awithin bounds identified in the adjusted channel allocationinstructions.

In an embodiment, the aerial traffic management system 130 may performblock 450 of FIG. 4 and block 540 of FIG. 5 if the UAV 105 is traversingor is expected to traverse portions of the airspace associated with thedetected interference event at an altitude higher than a thresholdaltitude. In this regard, since the interference impact is an impact ofor expected impact of UAVs due to accommodation of UAVs by the RAN 120,the aerial traffic management system 130 may set a threshold altitude.UAVs flying or otherwise operating below the threshold may be treatedsimilarly to ground-based UEs. The aerial traffic management system 130may set and adjust the threshold based on geographic information (e.g.,amount of UAVs flying in the airspace, ground- and/or aerial-basedcellular traffic, interference levels), time of day, day of year,holidays, etc. As examples, the threshold may be set to 50 ft, 200 ft,300 ft, 400 ft, or any values in between. In some cases, althoughadjustments to the channel allocation instructions are not applied whenUAVs are flying at altitudes below the threshold altitude, the aerialtraffic management system 130 may still adjust the flight route based onchanges in the geographic information at these lower altitudes.

It is noted that FIG. 5 provides an example process and that otherprocesses may be utilized. In FIG. 5, the aerial traffic managementsystem 130 attempts to reroute the UAV 105 over an alternative flightroute when possible and determines whether the event is an interferenceevent after the aerial traffic management system 130 determines that noalternative flight routes are available. In other embodiments, theaerial traffic management system 130 may determine whether to adjust theflight route, adjust the channel allocation instructions, or adjust theflight route and the channel allocation instructions. For example, whenthe mission of the UAV 105 is associated with low bandwidth applicationsor otherwise applications that can be readily adjusted to utilize fewerresources, the aerial traffic management system 130 may adjust thechannel allocation instructions instead of the flight route, even whenalternative flight routes are available.

FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram of an example of a UAV processingunit 600 in accordance with one or more embodiments of the presentdisclosure. Not all of the depicted components may be required, however,and one or more embodiments may include additional components shown inthe figure. Variations in the arrangement and type of the components maybe made without departing from the spirit or scope of the claims as setforth herein. Additional components, different components, and/or fewercomponents may be provided. For explanatory purposes, the UAV processingunit 600 is described herein with reference to the example networkenvironment 100 of FIG. 1; however, the UAV processing unit 600 is notlimited to the example network environment 100 of FIG. 1. In an aspect,the UAV 105 includes the UAV processing unit 600.

The UAV processing unit 600 may include a communication transceiver 605,a mobility controller 610, an autonomous positioner 615, a flightcontroller 620, and a flight rule controller 625. The communicationtransceiver 605 may implement appropriate physical layer(s) and protocolstack(s) to enable communication between the UAV 105 and the user device115, base stations 120A-C, aerial traffic management system 130, and/orcore network 135. For example, the communication transceiver 605 mayinclude an LIE transceiver module for implementing an LTE physical layerand LTE protocol stack, and/or any other 3G, 4G, and/or 5G transceivermodule(s), and/or satellite network transceiver module(s), and/or othertransceiver module(s) associated with other wirelessprotocols/applications. The communication transceiver 605 may allow theUAV 105 to transmit messages to and/or receive messages from the userdevice 115, base stations 120A-C, aerial traffic management system 130,and/or core network 135 using the antenna 110 and/or other antenna. Insome cases, data transmissions to and from the UAV 105 may occur overcommunication channels (e.g., physical communication channels) definedby a serving base station based on channel allocation instructions fromthe aerial traffic management system 130.

The mobility controller 610 may implement any control and feedbackoperations appropriate for interacting with the avionics, controlactuators, and/or other equipment included in the flight control unit tofly the UAV 105, including, but not limited to, taking off, landing,and/or setting/adjusting direction, velocity, and/or acceleration of theUAV 105. In some cases, the mobility controller 610 may receive commandsfrom the user device 115, base stations 120A-C, aerial trafficmanagement system 130, and/or core network 135, to, for example,configure a flight route (e.g., program a flight route), adjust aprogrammed flight route, deploy the UAV 105, land the UAV 105, navigatethe UAV 105, and/or other commands that facilitate navigating the UAV105 and utilizing the UAV 105 to perform an action. In some cases, themobility controller 610 may receive commands to move and/or rotate theUAV 105 and/or component thereof (e.g., the antenna 110).

The autonomous positioner 615 may be utilized to monitor (e.g.,autonomously monitor) a current position of the UAV 105. The autonomouspositioner 615 may include, or may be in communication with (e.g., viathe communication transceiver 605), a GPS that provides the position ofthe UAV 105. In some cases, the autonomous positioner 615 may implementlocation determination techniques. In an aspect, the autonomouspositioner 615 may determine a positional difference between the UAV 105and a base station (e.g., the base station 120A) based on the positioninformation of the UAV 105 and the base station. For example, theautonomous positioner 615 may generate signals (e.g., for the mobilitycontroller 610) that cause rotation and/or movement of the antenna 110(e.g., a directional antenna).

The flight controller 620 may be utilized to identify the currentposition of the UAV 105 (e.g., provided by the autonomous positioner615) relative to positions in a pre-programmed flight route. The flightcontroller 620 may receive and process information from onboard sensors,base stations 120A-C, aerial traffic management system 130, core network135, and/or other devices to determine whether to maintain the UAV 105on the pre-programmed flight route or to deviate from the pre-programmedflight route (e.g., to avoid a collision). The flight controller 620 maygenerate control signals that cause the mobility controller 610 to flythe UAV 105 along a route specified by the control signals, which may ormay not differ from the pre-programmed flight route, and/or controlsignals that cause movement and/or rotation of the UAV 105 and/orcomponent thereof.

FIG. 7 illustrates a block diagram of an example of a communicationchannel allocation unit 700 in accordance with one or more embodimentsof the present disclosure. Not all of the depicted components may berequired, however, and one or more embodiments may include additionalcomponents shown in the figure. Variations in the arrangement and typeof the components may be made without departing from the spirit or scopeof the claims as set forth herein. Additional components, differentcomponents, and/or fewer components may be provided. For explanatorypurposes, the communication channel allocation unit 700 is describedherein with reference to the base station 120A in the example networkenvironment 100 of FIG. 1; however, the communication channel allocationunit 700 is not limited to the base station 120A or the example networkenvironment 100 of FIG. 1.

The communication channel allocation unit 700 may include acommunication transceiver 705 and a channel allocation controller 710.The communication transceiver 705 may implement appropriate physicallayer(s) and protocol stack(s) to enable communication between the basestation 120A and UEs (e.g., the UAV 105, the user device 115), otherbase stations of the RAN 120, aerial traffic management system 130,and/or core network 135. The communication transceiver 705 may relaymessages between UEs, aerial traffic management system 130, and/or corenetwork 135. In an embodiment, the communication transceiver 705 mayreceive channel allocation instructions associated with a UE from theaerial traffic management system 130. In some cases, data transmissionsbetween the UAV 105 and the base station 120A may occur overcommunication channels (e.g., physical communication channels) definedby the channel allocation controller 710 based on channel allocationinstructions from the aerial traffic management system 130.

The channel allocation controller 710 may assign a communication channel(e.g., physical communication channel) to a UE based on channelallocation instructions from the aerial traffic management system 130.The channel allocation instructions may indicate one or more of afrequency band allocatable to a UE, a bit rate allocatable to the UE, ora communication protocol for the UE. Within the boundaries set by thechannel allocation instructions, the channel allocation controller 710may assign a communication channel to the UE based on radio resourcemanagement of the base station 120A.

FIG. 8 illustrates a block diagram of an example of a flight managementunit 800 in accordance with one or more embodiments of the presentdisclosure. Not all of the depicted components may be required, however,and one or more embodiments may include additional components shown inthe figure. Variations in the arrangement and type of the components maybe made without departing from the spirit or scope of the claims as setforth herein. Additional components, different components, and/or fewercomponents may be provided. For explanatory purposes, the flightmanagement unit 800 is described herein with reference to the examplenetwork environment 100 of FIG. 1; however, the flight plan processingunit 800 is not limited to the example network environment 100 ofFIG. 1. In an aspect, the aerial traffic management system 130 and/orthe core network 135 may include the flight management unit 800, orcomponents thereof.

The flight management unit 800 may include a communication transceiver805, a geographic information controller 810, a flight route generator815, and a user interface (UI) controller 820. The communicationtransceiver 805 may implement appropriate physical layer(s) and protocolstack(s) to enable communication between the aerial traffic managementsystem 130 and/or core network 135 and the UAV 105. The communicationtransceiver 805 may allow the aerial traffic management system 130and/or core network 135 to transmit messages (e.g., NAS messages) toand/or receive messages from the UAV 105 (e.g., directly or indirectly).

The geographic information controller 810 may be utilized to retrieveand process geographic information associated with a geographic regionencompassing a starting point and a destination point provided by anoperator. The geographic information may include obstacle information,weather information, emergency broadcast information, and/or otherinformation, which may be retrieved from various sources.

The geographic information may also include traffic information,including air traffic information, from the base stations 120A-C and/orother base stations associated with the same mobile network operator,base stations of one or more other mobile network operator, and/oranother party. For example, the traffic information may indicateutilization/occupancy associated with different base stations andinterference impact (e.g., interference index pattern) associated withdifferent portions of the airspace. In this regard, the geographicinformation controller 810 may generate control signals to betransmitted via the communication transceiver 805, and cause trafficinformation to be received via the communication transceiver 805. Thegeographic information may be utilized as is or may be processed into aform more readily usable for facilitating flight route generation. Forexample, the traffic information may be, or may be processed to obtain,traffic statistics.

The flight route generator 815 may be utilized to generate flight routesand channel allocation instructions for connecting to the cellularnetwork during flight of UAVs on associated flight routes. The flightroutes and channel allocation instructions may be generated based ongeographic information of the geographic region encompassing thestarting point and the destination point and/or information from anoperator. The flight route generator 815 may receive signals from thegeographic information controller 810. The flight route generator 815may also adjust previously generated flight routes and/or channelallocation instructions based on detected events (e.g., changes to thegeographic information) or the operator's flight plan. In an embodiment,the flight route generator 815 may generate flight routes by connectingone or more predefined air corridors. The flight route generator 815 maystore, or may have access to, information pertaining to flight routescurrently being effectuated by various UAVs, flight routes that havebeen completed in the past, and flight routes to be initiated in thefuture.

The UI controller 820 may be utilized to provide an interface forfacilitating providing of user input to generate and manage flightplans. For example, the UI controller 820 may provide a user interfaceon a website and/or an application program that accepts user input froman operator. By way of non-limiting example, the user interface mayallow the operator to provide information that may be utilized by theflight route generator 815 to generate flight plans and/or adjustexisting flight plans.

While an example manner of implementing the UAV processing unit 600,communication channel allocation unit 700, and flight management unit800 are illustrated in FIGS. 6, 7, and 8, respectively, one or more ofthe components (e.g., elements, processes, and/or devices) illustratedin FIGS. 6, 7, and 8 may be combined, divided, re-arranged, omitted,eliminated, and/or implemented in any other way. Further, the variouscomponents (e.g., 605, 610, 615, 620, 705, 710, 805, 810, 815, 820) maybe implemented by hardware, software, firmware, and/or any combinationof hardware, software, and/or firmware. Thus, for example, any of thesecomponents, and/or, more generally, the UAV processing unit 600,communication channel allocation unit 700, and flight management unit800 may be implemented by one or more analog and/or digital circuits,logic circuits, programmable processors, application specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), and/or fieldprogrammable logic devices (FPLDs). In this regard, when implementedusing circuitry, the UAV processing unit 600, communication channelallocation unit 700, and flight management unit 800 may be referred toas UAV processing circuit, communication channel allocation circuit, andflight management circuit, respectively.

When reading any claims as set forth herein to cover purely softwareand/or firmware implementations, at least one of the units or componentsin FIGS. 6, 7, and 8 is hereby expressly defined to include a tangiblecomputer readable storage device or storage disk such as a memory,digital versatile disk (DVD), compact disk (CD), a Blu-ray disc™, and/orother storage device/disk storing the software and/or firmware.

FIG. 9 illustrates a block diagram of an example of an electronic system900 with which one or more embodiments of the present disclosure may beimplemented. In an embodiment, the electronic system 900 may be, mayinclude, or may be referred to as, processor platform. The electronicsystem 900 can generally be any type of computing device. In anembodiment, the electronic system 900 can be, can include, and/or can bea part of, one or more of the UAV 105, user device 115, base stations120A-C, aerial traffic management system 130, core network 135 (e.g.,MME of the core network 135) shown in FIG. 1. For example, theelectronic system 900 may be, may include, or may be a part of, the UAV105.

The electronic system 900 includes one or more processors 905, volatilememory 910, non-volatile memory 915, one or more mass storage devices920, one or more network interfaces 925, one or more input deviceinterfaces 930, one or more output device interfaces 935, and a link940. The link 940 may be, may include, or may be implemented by, a bus,one or more point-to-point connections (e.g., intra-chip connectionsand/or inter-chip connections), and/or other connections forfacilitating connection of and/or communication between variouscomponents of the electronic system 900.

The link 940 couples (e.g., connects) to the processor(s) 905. In anaspect, the processor(s) 905 of the illustrated example is hardware. Forexample, the processor(s) 905 can be implemented by one or moreintegrated circuits, logic circuits, processors, and/or controllers fromany desired family or manufacturer. The processor(s) 905 includes one ormore processing units 945 configured via instructions 955 stored in alocal memory 950 (e.g., a cache) of the processor(s) 905. In an aspect,the instructions 955 may include instructions that when executed,perform at least some instructions of FIGS. 4 and 5 and/or to implementthe one or more of the units 600, 700, and 800 of FIGS. 6, 7, and 8. Theprocessor(s) 905 is in communication with the volatile memory 910,non-volatile memory 915, and the mass storage device(s) 920 via the link940. In an aspect, the processor(s) 905 may be, may include, or may be apart of, the UAV processing unit 600 of FIG. 6, communication channelallocation unit 700 of FIG. 7, or the flight management unit 800 of FIG.8. In an aspect, the processing units 945 may be, may include, or may bea part of, the UAV processing unit 600 of FIG. 6, communication channelallocation unit 700 of FIG. 7, or the flight management unit 800 of FIG.8.

The link 940 couples (e.g., connects) to the volatile memory 910,non-volatile memory 915, and mass storage device(s) 920. The volatilememory 910 may include synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM),dynamic RAM (DRAM), static RAM (SRAM) Rambus dynamic RAM (RDRAM), and/orother types of volatile memory. The non-volatile memory 915 may includeread-only memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable programmableROM (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable (EEPROM), flash memory,non-volatile RAM (NVRAM), and/or other types of non-volatile memory. Thenon-volatile memory 915 may store instructions and data even when theelectronic system 900 is off. The mass storage device(s) 920 may includefloppy disk drives, hard disk drives, compact disk drives, DVD drives,Blu-ray disc™ drives, redundant array of independent disks (RAID)systems, solid state memories, and/or other devices that allow storage.Access to the volatile memory 910, non-volatile memory 915, and massstorage device(s) 920 may be controlled by a memory controller (notshown). In an aspect, the coded instructions 955 corresponding to atleast some instructions of FIGS. 4 and/or 5 may be stored in thevolatile memory 910, non-volatile memory 915, mass storage device(s)920, local memory 950, and/or on a removable tangible computer readablestorage medium, such as a disk 960 (e.g., CD, DVD, or Blu-ray disc™).

The link 940 couples (e.g., connects) to the network interface(s) 925.The network interface(s) 925 may couple the electronic system 900 to oneor more networks 965. In this manner, the electronic system 900 can be apart of a network of devices, such as a local area network (LAN), a WAN,or an Intranet, or a network of networks, such as the Internet. In anembodiment, the network interface(s) 925 may facilitate communicationbetween the electronic system 900 and a cellular network, such as acellular network that includes the RAN 120, aerial traffic managementsystem 130, and/or core network 135 of FIG. 1. In this regard, thenetwork interface(s) 925 may also facilitate communication between theelectronic system 900 and the user device 115. The network interface(s)925 may be implemented by any type of interface standard, such as anEthernet interface, a universal serial bus (USB) interface, a PCIexpress interface, a wireless network interface (e.g., wireless LANinterface), a cellular network interface, and/or other interfaces. Forexample, a cellular network interface may provide support for GlobalSystem for Mobile Communications (GSM)-based cellular networks, codedivision multiple access (CDMA)-based cellular networks, and/or othercellular networks. The network interface(s) 925 may include acommunication device such as a transmitter, receiver, transceiver,modem, and/or network interface card to facilitate exchange of data withexternal machines (e.g., computing devices of any kind) via thenetwork(s) 965. In an aspect, the network interface(s) 925 may bestructured to implement the communication transceiver 605, 705, or 805of FIG. 6, 7, or 8.

The link 940 couples (e.g., connects) to the input device interface(s)930. The input device interface(s) 930 may couple the electronic system900 to one or more input devices 970. The input device(s) 970 may enablea user to provide (e.g., enter) data and commands to the electronicsystem 900. For example, the user may be an operator of the UAV 105 whenthe electronic system 900 is disposed on the UAV 105 or when theelectronic system 900 is a remote control device (e.g., the user device115) of the UAV 105. The input device(s) 970 may include, for example,an audio sensor, a microphone, a camera (still or video), a voicerecognition system, a keyboard (e.g., a physical or virtual keyboard), acursor control device (e.g., a mouse), a touchscreen, and/or otherdevices for providing user input to the electronic system 900. Also,many systems, such as the electronic system 900, can allow a user toprovide data and commands using physical gestures, such as, but notlimited to, hand or body movements, facial expressions, and facerecognition. In this regard, the user input may be received in any form,such as audio (e.g., speech), visual, and/or tactile. For example, in anaspect, to adjust a flight path of a UAV (e.g., the UAV 105) that is,includes, or is a part of the electronic system 900, the user may entertext via a physical keyboard communicatively connected to the electronicsystem 900 via the input device interface(s) 930. The text input may berelayed to the processor(s) 905 via the input device interface(s) 930and the link 940. The processor(s) 905 may process the text input intocommands to adjust the flight path of the UAV and facilitateimplementation of the commands.

The link 940 couples (e.g., connects) to the output device interface(s)935. The output device interface(s) 935 may couple the electronic system900 to one or more output devices 975. The output device interface(s)935 may include a graphics and/or audio driver card, graphics and/oraudio driver chip, and/or graphics and/or audio driver processor. Theoutput device(s) 975 may enable the electronic system 900 to provideoutput information to a user. The output device(s) 975 may include, forexample, display devices (e.g., a light emitting diode (LED), an organicLED (OLED), a liquid crystal display (LCD)), audio devices (e.g.,speakers), audiovisual devices, and/or other output devices. In thisregard, the output information may provide feedback to the user in anyform, such as visual feedback, auditory feedback, and/or tactilefeedback. For example, in an aspect, a UAV (e.g., the UAV 105) that is,includes, or is a part of the electronic system 900 may provideoperational characteristics, such as remaining battery power, remainingfuel level, remaining actions to be performed, current position in aflight path, component health (e.g., engine health, battery health), toa display coupled to the UAV (e.g., wired or wirelessly coupled) via theoutput device interface(s) 935 and viewable by the user.

In one or more embodiments, FIGS. 4 and 5 illustrate example machinereadable instructions for the UAV processing unit 600 and/or componentsthereof, communication channel allocation unit 700 and/or componentsthereof, and/or the flight management unit 800 and/or componentsthereof. In these examples, the machine readable instructions mayinclude one or more programs for execution by one or more processors,such as the processor(s) 905 shown in the electronic system 900. The oneor more programs, or portion(s) thereof, may be embodied in softwarestored on a tangible computer readable storage medium, such as a CD-ROM,a floppy disk, a hard drive, a DVD, a Blu-ray disc™, and/or a memoryassociated with the processor(s) 905, but the entire program or programsand/or portions thereof may alternatively be executed by a device otherthan the processor(s) 905, and/or embodied in firmware or dedicatedhardware (e.g., implemented by an ASIC, a PLD, an FPLD, discrete logic,etc.). Further, although the example program(s) is described withreference to the flow diagrams illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5, many othermethods may be used. For example, with reference to the flow diagramsillustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5, the order of execution of the blocks maybe changed, and/or some of the blocks described may be changed, removed,combined, and/or subdivided into multiple blocks.

The example processes 400 and 500 of FIGS. 4 and 5, respectively, may beimplemented using coded instructions (e.g., computer and/or machinereadable instructions) stored on a tangible computer readable storagemedium such as a hard disk drive, flash memory, ROM, RAM, CD, DVD, cacheand/or any other storage device or storage disk in which information isstored for any duration (e.g., for extended time periods, permanently,for brief instances, for temporarily buffering, and/or for caching ofthe information). Alternatively or in addition, the example processes400 and 500 of FIGS. 4 and 5, respectively, may be implemented usingcoded instructions (e.g., computer and/or machine readable instructions)stored on a non-transitory computer and/or machine readable medium suchas a hard disk drive, flash memory, ROM, RAM, CD, DVD, cache and/or anyother storage device or storage disk in which information is stored forany duration (e.g., for extended time periods, permanently, for briefinstances, for temporarily buffering, and/or for caching of theinformation). As used herein, the terms “tangible computer readablestorage medium” and “non-transitory computer readable medium” areexpressly defined to include any type of computer readable storagedevice and/or storage disk and to exclude propagating signals and toexclude transmission media. As used herein, “tangible computer readablestorage medium” and “tangible machine readable storage medium” are usedinterchangeably.

At least some of the above described example methods and/or apparatusare implemented by one or more software and/or firmware programs runningon a computer processor. However, dedicated hardware implementationsincluding, but not limited to, application specific integrated circuits,programmable logic arrays and other hardware devices can likewise beconstructed to implement some or all of the example methods and/orapparatus described herein, either in whole or in part. Furthermore,alternative software implementations including, but not limited to,distributed processing or component/object distributed processing,parallel processing, or virtual machine processing can also beconstructed to implement the example methods and/or apparatus describedherein.

To the extent the above specification describes example components andfunctions with reference to particular standards and protocols, it isunderstood that the scope of the present disclosure is not limited tosuch standards and protocols. For instance, each of the standards forInternet and other packet switched network transmission (e.g.,Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)/Internet Protocol (IP), UserDatagram Protocol (UDP)/IP, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), HypertextTransfer Protocol (HTTP)) represent examples of the current state of theart. Such standards are periodically superseded by faster or moreefficient equivalents having the same general functionality.Accordingly, replacement standards and protocols having the samefunctions are equivalents which are contemplated by the presentdisclosure and are intended to be included within the scope of theaccompanying claims.

Additionally, although embodiments of the present disclosure provideexample systems including software or firmware executed on hardware, itshould be noted that such systems are merely illustrative and should notbe considered as limiting. For example, it is contemplated that any orall of these hardware and software components could be embodiedexclusively in hardware, exclusively in software, exclusively infirmware or in some combination of hardware, firmware and/or software.Accordingly, while the foregoing provides example systems, methods, andarticles of manufacture, the examples are not the only way to implementsuch systems, methods, and articles of manufacture. Therefore, althoughcertain example methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture havebeen described herein, the scope of coverage of the present disclosureis not limited thereto. On the contrary, the present disclosure coversall methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture fairly fallingwithin the scope of the claims either literally or under the doctrine ofequivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method to facilitate network connectivity of anunmanned aerial vehicle, the method comprising: providing, to at leastone access point of a radio access network during flight of the unmannedaerial vehicle on a flight route, channel allocation instructions forconnecting the unmanned aerial vehicle to the radio access network viacommunication channels; detecting an interference event associated witha portion of the flight route of the unmanned aerial vehicle during theflight; adjusting, during the flight, the channel allocationinstructions in response to detecting the interference event; andproviding the adjusted channel allocation instructions to at least oneaccess point of the radio access network during the flight.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein adjusting the channel allocation instructionscomprises adjusting at least one of a frequency band allocatable to theunmanned aerial vehicle, a bit rate allocatable to the unmanned aerialvehicle, or a communication protocol for the unmanned aerial vehicle. 3.The method of claim 1, wherein the interference event comprisesinterference above a threshold value for the portion of the flightroute.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the adjusted channel allocationinstructions are for connecting the unmanned aerial vehicle during theflight on at least the portion of the flight route.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: determining whether to adjust the flightroute of the unmanned aerial vehicle based at least on the detectedinterference event and interference information associated with avolumetric space outside of the flight route; and adjusting the flightroute when the determination is to adjust the flight route, whereinadjusting the channel allocation instructions is performed when thedetermination is to not adjust the flight route.
 6. The method of claim5, wherein adjusting the flight route comprises rerouting the unmannedaerial vehicle from flight on a first predefined air corridor within theflight route to flight on a second predefined air corridor.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising receiving authenticationinformation associated with the unmanned aerial vehicle, wherein theauthentication information comprises an indication of the unmannedaerial vehicle being an aerial-based device.
 8. The method of claim 7,further comprising: receiving flight plan information comprising astarting point, a destination point, and one or more actions associatedwith the flight on the flight route; generating the flight route basedat least on the received flight plan information in response tosuccessful authentication; and providing for transmission the flightroute to the unmanned aerial vehicle, wherein the channel allocationinstructions are based at least on the one or more actions associatedwith the flight on the flight route.
 9. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: determining one or more interference indices for each of aplurality of predefined air corridors based at least on interferenceinformation associated with each of the plurality of predefined aircorridors, wherein the flight route is generated based further on theplurality of predefined air corridors and the one or more interferenceindices associated with each of the plurality of predefined aircorridors.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the adjusted channelallocation instructions comprise an instruction to migrate the unmannedaerial vehicle from the radio access network to a different network. 11.A system, comprising: one or more processors; and a non-transitorymachine readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, whichwhen executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or moreprocessors to perform operations comprising: receiving flight planinformation comprising a first point and a second point; generating,based at least on the flight plan information and interferenceinformation associated with a geographic region encompassing the firstpoint and the second point, a flight route for an unmanned aerialvehicle and channel allocation instructions for connecting the unmannedaerial vehicle to a radio access network via communication channels;providing the flight route to the unmanned aerial vehicle; providing, toat least one access point of the radio access network during flight ofthe unmanned aerial vehicle on the flight route, the channel allocationinstructions; adjusting, during the flight, the channel allocationinstructions in response to a first event associated with a firstportion of the flight route; and providing the adjusted channelallocation instructions to at least one access point of the radio accessnetwork during the flight.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein adjustingthe channel allocation instructions comprises adjusting at least one ofa frequency band allocatable to the unmanned aerial vehicle, a bit rateallocatable to the unmanned aerial vehicle, or a communication protocolfor the unmanned aerial vehicle.
 13. The system of claim 11, wherein thefirst event comprises interference above a threshold value for the firstportion of the flight route.
 14. The system of claim 11, wherein theoperations further comprise: detecting a second event associated with asecond portion of the flight route; adjusting, based at least on thedetected second event and the interference information, the flight routeof the unmanned aerial vehicle from flight on a first predefined aircorridor within the flight route to flight on a second predefined aircorridor; and providing the adjusted flight route to the unmanned aerialvehicle.
 15. The system of claim 11, wherein the operations furthercomprise: receiving authentication information associated with theunmanned aerial vehicle, wherein the authentication informationcomprises an indication of the unmanned aerial vehicle being anaerial-based device.
 16. The system of claim 11, wherein the geographicregion encompasses a plurality of predefined air corridors, wherein theoperations further comprise: associating one or more interferenceindices with each of the plurality of predefined air corridors based atleast on the interference information, wherein the flight route isgenerated based further on the plurality of predefined air corridors andthe one or more interference indices associated with each of theplurality of predefined air corridors.
 17. A tangible machine readablestorage medium including machine readable instructions which, whenexecuted, cause one or more processors of a device to perform operationscomprising: providing, to at least one access point of a radio accessnetwork, channel allocation instructions for connecting unmanned aerialvehicles to the radio access network via communication channels duringflight of the unmanned aerial vehicles on a flight route, wherein theflight route comprises a subset of a plurality of predefined aircorridors; detecting an interference event associated at least one ofthe subset of the plurality of predefined air corridors; determiningwhether an alternative flight route is available based at least oninterference information associated with the plurality of predefinedcorridors; adjusting the channel allocation instructions in response todetecting the interference event when no alternative flight routes aredetermined to be available; and providing the adjusted channelallocation instructions to at least one access point of the radio accessnetwork.
 18. The tangible machine readable storage medium of claim 17,wherein adjusting the channel allocation instructions comprisesadjusting at least one of a frequency band allocatable to the unmannedaerial vehicle, a bit rate allocatable to the unmanned aerial vehicle,or a communication protocol for the unmanned aerial vehicle.
 19. Thetangible machine readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein theoperations further comprise: determining one or more interferenceindices for each of the plurality of predefined air corridors based atleast on the interference information associated with the plurality ofpredefined air corridors, wherein the flight route is generated basedfurther on the plurality of predefined air corridors and the one or moreinterference indices associated with each of the plurality of predefinedair corridors.
 20. The tangible machine readable storage medium of claim17, wherein the operations further comprise: receiving flight planinformation comprising a starting point, a destination point, and one ormore actions associated with the flight on the flight route, wherein:the flight route is based at least on the starting point and thedestination point, and the channel allocation instructions are based atleast on the one or more actions associated with the flight on theflight route.